Movie Mondays
August 9th, 2010
One of Hollywood’s outspoken liberty-lovers is speaking out today over an interesting issue happening in the UK. The United Kingdom Film Council (UKFC) may be abolished.
The UKFC is a government funded program that supports the film industry in the UK as well as abroad. The majority of their funding comes from lottery money, and has invested over $160 million into over 900 films. The Labour Government is now downsizing the subsidized film organization which is worrying many actors and Ben Bradshaw the UK’s Culture Secretary stated, “The UK film industry has just had its best year ever, earning millions for our country, but the Government is axing the UK Film Council without saying what or who will do its important work.”
The government commented that funding would not discontinue completely for film organizations, just that the funds will be allocated to others.
So the reason for Eastwood’s die hard support of this organization propped by government funding? As stated in his written plea for the UKFC’s defense, “…without the rigorous support of the UKFC, my production company would not have been able to make its latest film in London. The prospect of losing a valuable resource such as the UKFC is of great concern to us.”
Doesn’t sound like much of a free-market libertarian to me. According to previous interviews Clint Eastwood believes that “leaving everyone alone” is his favored position politically and personally. If Eastwood believed in this organization and wanted it to survive perhaps he should donate and solicit others to privatize the org. Although lottery money seems to be a little less harmful (voluntarily collected) than using the tax payers money, lottery funding only makes up part of their balance sheet.
"font-family:georgia;">If the money does not go to the UKFC it is looking likely for the recipient to be the British Film Insitute (BFI). BFI promotes the nation’s films and television heritage.
Read here to find other actors that are supporting this effort right along with Eastwood.
