ANKOKO is a local Guyanese film set in a modern-aged play written by Mosa Telford, Bonnie Alves and Tiffany Vasquez and directed by Denise Harris. The film was made three years ago to address the Guyana and Venezuela border dispute; however, it was officially released on Wednesday night at the Umana Yana during the launch of the 50th Jubilee Film Festival.

According to the President of Cine Guyana Incorporated, Burchmore Simon, the film festival is a collaboration between the Ministry of The Presidency, Department Of Social Cohesion, Culture Youth and Sport and Cine Guyana Inc. to partner with filmmakers and other film-related entities to lift the standard of film-making in Guyana.

“This festival is significant in a number of ways, the partnership between the Ministry of The Presidency, Department of Social Cohesion Youth and Sport and Cine Guyana Incorporated, because part of the mandate ducted by Cine Guyana is to partner with people and associations in order to lift the standard of films,” Simon noted.
He added that Cine Guyana had vowed to partner with the Government of Guyana to broaden the film diaspora and to ensure persons who would have submitted films for the festival are paid for their work.

“We vowed that we would do, work with the government and work with film makers across the world and the third thing, the most significant, is that people would be paid for their content that would be used in this festival. I think that is a huge step in the right direction and we certainly hope that other agencies will have the same principle, paying for content,” he added.

Meanwhile, the Creative Director of Guyana’s 50th Jubilee Celebration, Russel Lancaster noted that when himself and team envisioned their plans for this year’s celebration, they thought of film and Guyana’s history in film.

“I just want to say that when we envisaged what we would do for the 50th anniversary our thoughts went to all the areas we could cover in the shortest possible period of time, for instances, based on the theme ‘Guyana Forever, Reflect, Celebrate, Transform’ we should be looking back, celebrating who we are and we should be looking to the future to where we are going,” he stated.

Lancaster added that Guyana has the talent and potential to make it on the big stage in film.

“When I saw the other night that at the Oscars a Korean film won best picture, immediately my mind went to Guyana and I said we have got the potential to do this and it can only happen when we come together, meaning, we can use all our skills together… we can use those skills in a way that will ensure people can see who we are and how special our country is and when I think about the diversity of our country and when I think about the flora and the fauna, scenes that can be filmed in this place, I know that Guyana has a place in film,” he gushed.

Sixty Guyanese films will be shown over the weekend at the Umana Yana, Theatre Guild and the Moray House simultaneous from 14:00hrs and 17:00hrs in the afternoon from Today to Sunday, February 16, 2020.

Films will vary from fantasy, drama, thriller, folklore and animation.