Greater than two and a half years after she took workplace, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has fulfilled a nagging marketing campaign promise to movie trade advocates.
She is appointing Board of Public Works president Steve Kang to function a liaison between metropolis paperwork and the movie trade, she stated Wednesday. The mayor made the announcement whereas talking to a personal Zoom assembly of her leisure trade council Wednesday afternoon, in response to three attendees.
Kang would be the chief movie liaison, assisted by Dan Halden — who serves as performing director of exterior relations on the metropolis’s Bureau of Road Providers (StreetsLA) — and producer Amy Goldberg.
Town’s movie liaison position was established underneath former Mayor Eric Garcetti.
Prior to now, the liaison has served as the purpose particular person for movie and TV productions trying to shoot in L.A., serving to filmmakers navigate town’s huge paperwork.
“I’ve full confidence that President Steve Kang will ship in his position as Metropolis Movie Liaison by discovering options that shield our signature trade and be certain that native filming of TV exhibits, motion pictures and commercials can efficiently proceed and broaden,” Bass stated in a press release. “With the profitable enlargement of the California Movie & TV Tax Credit score and our ongoing efforts to enhance native processes, our work continues to maintain manufacturing jobs right here and help small companies who depend on the trade.”
Bass’ determination to not prioritize the appointment of a movie liaison had lengthy pissed off trade advocates. These considerations had been sharpened at a second when L.A.’s future as a movie capital is in peril.
Amid a broader droop in total movie and TV manufacturing, town has lengthy been bleeding manufacturing jobs to states and nations that supply beneficiant tax incentives, cheaper labor and extra filming-friendly bureaucracies.
Most of these points are outdoors the mayor’s management. However some trade advocates felt that naming a movie liaison could be a straightforward transfer that might make capturing in L.A. rather less of a headache.
Since Bass took workplace in December 2022, these advocates have pressed the mayor’s workplace on the problem, with no clear solutions concerning the delay.
“There’s been a transparent sense of want, and frustration that it hasn’t occurred,” stated one trade advocate, who had been current through the mayor’s workplace’s common conferences with representatives from movie studios, labor teams and different trade pursuits.
Garcetti had a number of movie liaisons throughout his administration.
Members of the trade typically level to Metropolis Corridor veteran Kevin James — who held the position for a number of years starting in 2015 — as a perfect mannequin, since he had deep Metropolis Corridor expertise, in addition to ties to the trade. James served as movie liaison whereas president of the Board of Public Works. The board governs town’s Division of Public Works, which is answerable for StreetsLA, in addition to the road lighting, sanitation and engineering departments.
The mayor’s workplace has needed to navigate a traditionally troublesome 2025, starting with a catastrophic firestorm, adopted by immigration raids and an unprecedented navy presence within the metropolis — all of which have necessitated 24/7 disaster responses from her workplace. However the frustrations over the shortage of a named level particular person far predate the latest crises.
Whereas signing an govt directive to help native movie and TV manufacturing in Might, Bass was requested concerning the place and stated she deliberate to nominate somebody throughout the subsequent few days.
Greater than three months later, she lastly did.
