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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FILMMAKERS FREE TO SELL THEIR DVD'S ON NYC STREETS  (May 4, 2004)—A New York County Criminal Court judge has dismissed all charges of vending without a license against international award-winning filmmaker John Fucile, who was recently arrested for selling DVDs of his original films, "Zero and "Beat the Blue". The judge has also ordered the City to immediately return his confiscated films and equipment. Fucile was arrested September 9, 2003 in New York City’s Union Square, charged with violating the City’s General Vendor’s Law, which requires vendors to secure licenses before selling their goods. Citing the First Amendment in her opinion, Judge Melissa C. Jackson squarely granted the Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss. This, after a six-month court battle in which the City submitted a 30- page brief claiming, among other points, that Mr. Fucile’s films did not constitute art and were not worthy of the same First Amendment protection newspapers, magazines and other visual artists are guaranteed. Moments after the decision was handed down, the assistant district attorney said he would appeal the ruling. In her written opinion, Judge Jackson relied on 56 years of U.S. Supreme Court rulings, which were ultimately consolidated by the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals in 1996 in the Bery v. City of New York, which granted First Amendment protections for the public display and sale of visual art on New York City’s streets. Judge Jackson wrote, “the courts have held that New York City Administrative Code is unconstitutional as a denial of equal protection when applied to visual artists. Accordingly, this court finds that the defendant is a visual artist. As such he is entitled to full First Amendment protection. … The application of [the statute] to this defendant not only renders a chilling effect and denies him his freedom of expression but also is a violation of the equal protection clause of the Constitution.” This ruling is crucial to visual artists because it acknowledges that digital media enjoys the same First Amendment protections as newspapers, magazines and oil paintings in New York City. Fucile's debut feature film "Loaded", the story of a murder spree at a laundromat in downtown New York City, is currently in active development with Carmichael Films. Fucile is an award-winning music video director and filmmaker and has lectured at NYU, The Metropolitan College of New York and New School University. He attended film school at Ryerson University in Toronto and was a Departmental Fellow and Scholar at New School University in the Graduate Media Studies program where he developed the digital video narrative production model, Circadian Cinema - The Art of Making Motion Pictures a Biological Activity. He is co-founder and partner of traditional and new media company SmackDabMedia.
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