As we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, our businesses need support. The arts, like the hospitality industry, have been devastated by the economic wreckage of the past year of lockdowns and restrictions.
In Brockton, the arts have long been a lifeblood for many of our 100,000 residents, including those who have found gainful employment working in the film industry. In recent years, Brockton has hosted several major motion picture shoots and welcomed some of Hollywood’s biggest stars to the City of Champions.
While it’s nice to have Jennifer Lawrence, Sienna Miller, Annie Murphy, Adam Sandler and other stars in our city, the real value has been the many jobs those productions created. Many Brocktonians and residents of surrounding towns have built rewarding careers working on film productions, including make-up artists, costume and set designers, actors and actresses, writers and others.
Brockton-raised creatives have had great success in Hollywood, including screenwriter Shawn Simmons, who created the Amazon series “Wayne”; Brandon Scales, a boxer and actor who stars alongside Mark Wahlberg in Netflix’s “Spenser Confidential”; and Brockton High School graduate Jean Elie, a Haitian-American actor who has a recurring role in HBO’s hit series “Insecure.”
In addition to creative jobs, productions in Brockton and surrounding communities have created steady work for electricians, carpenters, drivers, caterers and security firms, while bringing new business to local restaurants, hotels and retail. None of it is possible without the state’s generous and effective film industry tax incentives.
The Legislature is currently considering some modifications to the film tax credit, but I strongly urge my partners on Beacon Hill not to tinker with success. Don’t fix it if it’s not broken. Since 2006 when the tax credit became law, more than 275 productions have filmed in 225 communities, yielding $2.8 billion in local economic activity.
Just in the past couple of years, Brockton has hosted the new Netflix film “Don’t Look Up,” AMC’s hit series “Kevin Can (Expletive) Himself,” the Kathryn Bigelow drama “Detroit” and the box office smash “American Hustle,” among many others. Other major Hollywood productions have been shot on location in surrounding communities, including Easton, Randolph, Raynham, Stoughton and the Bridgewaters.
Massachusetts has built a fantastic film industry and the people who have invested their time and energy to build careers in motion pictures and television locally deserve to not have the rug pulled out from under them. Changing the structure of the film tax credit would drastically reduce the number of productions that come to Massachusetts — and Brockton — to film, if not stop them altogether.
The energy and excitement of Hollywood productions in our communities is great, but that’s not the reason to keep the tax incentives program. The reason is because we have built a new industry here with local crews, infrastructure, experience and talent that keeps Tinsel Town coming back. A lot of the workers in the industry, like many other fields, lost their livelihood as the film industry shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic.
But business is back. Films and TV shows are shooting again in Massachusetts communities, including a new Halle Berry sci-fi drama, “The Mothership,” “Fletch” starring Jon Hamm and the new HBO series “Julia,” based on the life of Julia Child.
It makes me proud as the mayor of a diverse city of 100,000 to see our residents find rewarding careers in show business without having to move to California or New York. Thanks to Massachusetts’ commitment to investment in the arts, they can ply their trades right here at home.
We are building a sustainable entertainment industry here, complete with studios, production companies, casting agents and busy film crews. The changes being considered by the Massachusetts Senate would severely harm these efforts and be a big step backwards, at a time when the industry, like all businesses, needs support.
Robert F. Sullivan is mayor of the city of Brockton.
