See ‘Civic Involvement’. While I was in France, I ran a 10-day film festival, which was basically as a homeschool project for my daughter to keep her in the loop while we were abroad. The festival really took off and we got incredible films from some of the finest filmmakers from around the world. France told me to shut it down because it was competing with the Cannes Film Festival. I refused. It was legal to compete, even in France, per both French and international law.
France changed laws specifically targeted at my festival. I asked if France wanted to damage its reputation of being about the arts and artists. They changed the laws back, but made them better. This time the law basically said that if there is a dispute between the government and an artist or art enterprise, the government must side with the artist. While my political experience wasn’t intentional, when it was time to go down that road, I not only did it but I did it well and was effective in a way that benefited the people.
Original source can be found here.
