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A working print of the incomplete film, Sins of Commission, has been subpoenaed by the California Coastal Commission, the very entity the doc takes on.
Filmmaker Richard Oshen says the CCC "misrepresents environmental protection policies for their own aggrandizement, and in the process, creates a hazardous situation for all Californians." See the trailer here.
Oshen says the actions are a violation of his First Amendment rights and a blatant attempt by the commission to silence the film.
No matter what the commission says regarding their demand for the film…the commission’s history, revealed for the first time in Sins of Commission, clearly shows how the California Coastal Commission obscures their real motives and objectives.
They simply want the film blocked, and will go to any length to accomplish their goal--even if it means violating the 1st Amendment of the US Constitution to do it.
The story was picked by KNBC Los Angeles news, see the report here:
Judge the film for yourself. Sins of Commission is set to screen at the 2009 West Hollywood International Film Festival, August 5-8.
© 2013 International Documentary Association. All Rights Reserved.
I saw this film and was totally astounded that an agency that was founded to protect our coast has turned against all the people living in the Coastal Zone. Once you see the abuses of the Coastal Commission against ordinary citizens, you will never be the same. How can this happen in the USA? Why do we have more and bigger fires in the Coastal Zone? ESHA (Environmentally Sensitive Habitat Areas) are used by the Coastal Commission to restrict people from clearing spaces around their homes. When was the last time you ever saw a fire break? We need to reform the Coastal Commission.
With the subpoenaing of Richard Oshen's fact-based exposure of the California Coastal Commission we now have the functional equivalent of "samizdat" in the state of California. This is not the USSR. Oshen is not an "enemy of the state" as were the Russian artists and writers who had to circulate their manuscripts via underground press, but that is what the subpoenaing of a documentary film accomplishes: undemocratic interference with the publication of a claim to truth. All the state of California achieves by attacking and suppressing a documentary film--solely on the basis of what it presents, not on any abusive use of language or image--is to prove that the public process Oshen exposes is truly undemocratic and unconstitutional. See the film. Present it in your homes to your friends. Make up your own minds. Then reform the CCC and insist on democracy. This is not a political issue; it is a civil rights issue, one that affects all of us.