…Visit to coincide with Jubilee celebrations

By Frederick Halley
GUYANESE-born, Los Angeles and New York-based filmmaker, Mason Richards is planning to travel across Guyana with his production team scouting locations to shoot the feature film version of his award-winning short film The Seawall. According to Mason, his visit to Guyana will coincide with the country’s 50th Independence anniversary celebrations.
Production on the film is slated to begin later this year on location in Guyana. The Los Angeles and New York-based team is also in the casting process, seeking local and overseas Guyanese talent to cast in the epic feature film set in Brooklyn and Guyana.
Mason pointed out that “it’s a modern-day immigration story where the main character journeys back ‘home’ to Guyana after living abroad for most of his life.

“It’s sort-of my story and I think the story of many immigrants who leave their birth country in search of a better life somewhere else, but then at some point you return home and things become clearer- or not. It’s a film about identity – both cultural and personal.”

The Seawall was screened to a packed house at the Havana Film Festival in Cuba last year, and has captivated audiences internationally in London, Toronto and around the world including Festival de Cannes-Court Mertage in France, and the Trinidad & Tobago Film Festival in Port of Spain.

Founding Director of Guyana’s first annual film festival, The Timehri Film Festival, Romola Lucas feels that shooting the feature-length version of The Seawall in Guyana will be awesome, considering the reception the short film has received, both in Guyana and around the world. The Timehri Film Festival is also scheduled to be staged in May.

According to Lucas, who is also founder of the Caribbean Film Academy (CaFA) a non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion and support of Caribbean filmmaking and filmmakers, choosing to shoot will also work as an inspiration to up-and-coming filmmakers in Guyana and will validate the experiences so many Guyanese people and artistes alike.

Guyana’s Kaieteur Falls, the largest single-drop waterfall in the world is just one of the locations that Richards will be scouting for his film.

Madhia, the visually stunning gold-mining town near the interior of Guyana, the vistas of the Amazon, and Guyana’s monumental seawall – built by the Dutch settlers in the 1880s, are just a few other locations that Richards and his production team are visiting over the next few weeks. “I couldn’t think of a better time than now to be in beautiful Guyana – it’s such an important time in our country’s history, and we’re thrilled to be a part of it, and also to be able to make a film that celebrates our Caribbean and our South American heritage.”

Emile Upczak, former director of the Trinidad & Tobago Film Festival adds “Caribbean cinema is definitely on the rise, and could likely become a hot spot for the global film industry.”

Upczak states that “provocative, high quality work is already being generated by writers and directors from the region.

“However, serious government support, including training for producers, co-production agreements and incentives must not only be put in place, but properly implemented for the industry to thrive.”

Guyanese-born Richards is the recipient of the Guyanese Consulate’s “Golden Arrowhead Award of Distinction for Service and Humanitarian” as well as the 2012 Sony Pictures Diversity Fellowship through Film Independent’s Project “Involve”, a diversity initiative that identifies emerging filmmakers from communities generally under-represented in the film industry.

DeVon Franklin, SVP of Production at Sony Pictures states “Mason was really one of those guys whose work has integrity and creativity in it, he also has his own interesting personal story – it was the combination of all those things that made him the right candidate.”

The Sony Pictures Diversity Fellowship includes year-round support and professional development, and a production grant. Mason has since used his award funds and professional support to build and produce his first feature film in a country he loves – Guyana.