Over at The Circuit, Mike Jones reports on the newly-launched efforts by the Ann Arbor Film Festival to raise awareness for their suit against the state of Michigan:

The Ann Arbor Film Festival, one of the country's oldest fests, wasn't looking for a fight when it programmed Crispin Glover's "What is it?" for its 2005 edition. It got it when the Mackinac Center for Public Policy pointed to it and a number of other "pornographic" films in an essay calling for state of Michigan to pull its financial support from the event. The arts funding in Michigan has, for decades, had vague guidelines attached to it regarding "offensive" material, a ripple effect from the NEA controversy in the '90s. It's just no one enforced it. But after Michael D. LaFaive's 2005 essay, the state wanted the guidelines followed before they released the festival's past-due cash.

The festival refused, and in March 2007, they (and the ACLU) sued the state, contending that “the state laws harm the First Amendment rights of artist.”

The new efforts include a fundraising campaign that will try to collect $75,000 "through Acts of Audacity." Check out Mike's entry, to learn more.

Arts funding in Michigan has been measly as long as I can remember. Former Governor Engler cut funding for arts across the board. I would guess that the cuts to the Ann Arbor Film Fest funding have less to do with censorship than the fact that the state was looking for a reason to cut more arts funding. The state would rather continue to subsidize the auto industry (and we can see how well that's working out lately).