Director of the award-winning Final Solutions—a documentary based on the Gujarat riots—Rakesh Sharma, has sued New York City for being detained by the city police while he was filming taxi cabs on a public sidewalk in Manhattan in May last year.In his lawsuit filed before US District Court, Southern District, New York yesterday, Sharma, an independent documentary maker, alleged that his detention was unlawful. ‘‘I have sought compensatory damages for my unlawful treatment in May, 2005,’’ Sharma said. The lawsuit has been filed by New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) on behalf of Sharma in conjunction with New York University Law School Civil Rights Clinic. Claiming that New York City’s film-permit scheme is unconstitutional, the lawsuit seeks a court order against its enforcement.Sharma, who also filed a complaint against New York City police officials who detained him, before the Civilian Complaint Review Board, said he decided to file the lawsuit as the Board, as an internal regulatory body, has no teeth. ‘‘In a democracy, people have the right to document activity in public places without being arrested,’’ said Donna Lieberman, Executive Director, NYCLU. ‘‘When the city tried to stop people from taking pictures in a subway, we objected and the city backed down. In the same way, we are challenging the city’s arbitrary film-permit scheme, which exposes legitimate filmmakers to risk of arrest for taking pictures on the streets of New York,’’ Lieberman said.According to the lawsuit, Sharma was arrested while visiting New York to make a film on the lives of ordinary people, including taxi drivers, in the post-9/11 world. After filming various midtown scenes with a handheld camera, he was standing on a sidewalk, when police detained him, held him for hours, and interrogated him. He was told he needed to have a permit for future filming, Sharma said. On his return to New York in November, he applied for a permit so that he would not be harassed again. The Mayor’s Office of Film, Theater and Broadcasting, he said, denied his request and refused him a written explanation. The Mayor’s Office has no written permit standards and requires applicants to have a $1 million insurance, said the lawsuit. ‘‘As a result, I am not able to film in New York,’’ he said.‘‘It’s a sad day when police think they can detain and mistreat someone simply for making a film on a public street in New York City,’’ Sharma said in his lawsuit. ‘‘I cooperated with them and answered all their questions, but they treated me like a criminal. It was wrong, and I was scared and humiliated,’’ he said.
