– Echoes from the plantation more than just a movie to Guyanese

ONE hundred and eighty years ago, East Indians were brought to British Guiana to work as indentured labourers but, most of their descendants are unaware of the struggles they faced while here so Producer, Kishore Seunarine made a movie that would help persons to relive the struggles, resilience and fortitude of their ancestors.

“Echoes from the plantation” was released a week ago in Guyana at the Aracari Resort and already persons have developed a close connection to the storyline, said Seunarine who was also the director of the movie.

The movie shows how East Indians were introduced to the plantations after Africans were emancipated in 1834 after years of facing the greatest crime against humanity, slavery.
Although there was a contractual agreement between the British and the Indians, their time as indentured labourers was almost similar to what the Africans had endured.
“Many people do not know about the story and I am not going to live forever to tell it so I wanted to create the movie to celebrate my ancestry and Indian heritage. For instance, when people view it now, it can still be shown year after year,” said Seunarine.
The script was written in 2014 and performed live on stage at different festivals around the world until the producer was encouraged to make a movie out of it.

“One day while performing it on stage, I looked at the crowd and saw tears in the eyes of persons of the audience and I said to myself that I am connecting with these people,” he said, adding that after he came off the stage the motivation to make the movie was there immediately.

Conceptualising the movie was no hard task for him because he has been an actor since 1977. Given the knowledge and experience already there, he decided to start making the movie in 2017.

With the assistance of the late Pandit, Gansham Lakeram and Alex Wayne, he was able to get a strong cast of Guyanese people who were here and also those who lived in the United States of America (USA).

Seunarine even went to the extent of hiring actual cane cutters to perform in the movie to add to its authenticity.

Although the cast members were competent, he said some of them were clueless about their heritage and ancestral history so even they were given a lesson while acting.
After everything was in place, filming began in October 2017 and took four weeks to complete but, the short time span was filled with challenges, said the producer.
“One of the challenges was that Guyanese are friendly people and a bit too laid back so a few people were late and that held back the filming of the movie,” he lamented.
There were also problems with the equipment and placement, said Seunarine, noting that the hardest place to shoot a scene was at Perseverance, Essequibo because persons did not turn out for the filming.

Despite all the odds, the movie was a success and he said his intention will be to promote it throughout the year then look at the possibility of making it a Guyanese sitcom.
The producer is hopeful that the movie will inspire young people to take note of their ancestral history and probably even go further into it than he did.
Echoes from the plantation has already premiered in New York, Guyana and he is looking to release it in Holland, England and Kenya.

Some of the actors said working on the movie was a great learning experience for them because some of the things brought out in the movie were not known.