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Hawaii lawmakers this week questioned state officials about why a fund created two years ago to support local filmmakers hasn’t been spent.
In a step toward speeding up grant distribution, the House Committee on Culture, Arts, and International Affairs advanced a measure Wednesday to create a new fund under a separate agency.
The money will be transferred from the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism’s Department of Creative Industries to the Provincial Culture and Arts Foundation, the government agency that runs public museums.
DBEDT chief executive Georgia Skinner said staffing was a challenge.
“That’s no excuse,” she told lawmakers. “I think the problem for all of us is that things didn’t get resolved quickly enough, and I take responsibility for that.”
The Film Producers Special Fund was established to generate additional revenue from movie facility rentals and has approximately $1 million to support filmmakers through state grants.
Councilor Adrian Tam, who chairs the committee, said this is not just a staffing issue.
“I’m sure everyone else is facing the same issue. It just seems to be an issue in our department,” Tam said. “So I’m very concerned about whether we can fundamentally trust this department to move these funds forward quickly.”
House Bill 2747, introduced by Representative Sonny Ganaden, would create a new fund under the SFCA to administer grants to filmmakers.
“Whether the funding stays in DBEDT or SFCA, we want it to go to developing filmmakers,” Ganaden said.
More than 20 pages of written testimony largely supported the measure.
Karen Ewald, SFCA’s executive director, said the office does not have film production expertise but will work with the creative industries to administer the grants.
The bill now requires a hearing in the House Economic Development Committee.
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