Is the Commerce Dept playing fast and loose with grant money?

Whether or not you believe that state government should hand out grants for film makers using tax dollar, the process should be fair and competitive to North Dakota film makers who are qualified.

The government gives out a lot of money for questionable things.

While in an ideal world, a lot of this money would not be re-distributed, so long as it is the process should be transparent and fair to all involved.

Recently a story broke about the North Dakota Commerce Department giving out a $600,000 grant to select filmmakers with only a 6-day window for filmmakers to apply.

Such a scenario reeks of favoritism as it is easy to assume the company that got the grant knew beforehand to be ready to apply, and the short application window rigged the game for them.

As a result of this situation, a large group of North Dakota filmmakers released an open letter to Governor Burgum to look at the situation occurring under his watch in one of his cabinet departments.

Here is the full open letter:

Letter To Governor Burgum From Nd Video Producers

77.8KB ∙ PDF file

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This group of filmmakers is asking the right questions:

● Why was the $100,000 film grant awarded non-competitively in 2021?

● Why didn’t the ND Department of Commerce issue any public announcements abo…