Third Travelling Caribbean Film Showcase premiered amidst praise
THE Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport, in collaboration with the Cuban Embassy in Guyana, on Monday, premiered the third Travelling Caribbean Film Showcase, featuring a special selection of Haitian films at the Umana Yana. The shows, which continue today, are being offered free of charge to the public also at Castellani House and University of Guyana (UG) through October 28.
Monday’s show at the Umana Yana featured two films: ‘Does the President Have AIDS?’ and ‘Black Soul’.
The travelling showcase aims to promote audio-visual works that, in their aesthetic, express the Caribbean cultural identity. Among others to be shown over the next fortnight are: ‘Haiti Trembles’, ‘Jaques Roumain’, ‘Passion of a country’, ‘Marta Jean Claude in Haiti’, ‘Governors of the Drew’, ‘Sahar’s Dream Life’, ‘Dear Haiti’, ‘Second Hand Pepe’, ‘Cousines’, ‘Poto Mitan’, ‘Port au Prince Mine’ and ‘Haiti Apocalypse Now’.
Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Dr. Frank Anthony said the venture has the potential to inspire young film makers to take pride in and promote their own films.
He told the Umana Yana audience that his ministry is very pleased to have the festival in Guyana and recalled that such events have always generated a lot of interest here.
Anthony applauded the initiative and rated the quality of the films highly, adding that as wide a cross-section of the population as possible should view them.
He lauded the initiative of  hosting the programme, which makes the shows available to Guyanese free of charge over the next two weeks and expressed the view that, because of the importance of such films, as many persons as possible should zero in on the opportunity of seeing them.
Anthony credited the films as being artistic, offering social commentary and giving people the inspiration to do things differently.

MAJOR SETBACK
“Not only do they tell a story but are, generally, more artistic and give a sociological perspective of the issues while disseminating specific messages which are appropriate for the wider region,” he remarked, regretting that the major setback is that they are not, very often, shown through popular medium.
Anthony observed that, generally, the films that reach here are the ones that are available on a commercial rate and, very often, would portray things from a different dimension.
For that reason, it is very important that when opportunities like the Travelling Caribbean Film Showcase come this way, they should be made available for viewing by as wide a cross-section of the population as possible.
Unfortunately, said the minister, whilst it is appropriate to host the shows at venues such as Umana Yana, Castellani House and UG, invariably a limited number of persons attend, so that they really do not reach a wide cross-section of viewers.
He maintained that such venues would not, by themselves, attract the number of viewers as really should benefit from the opportunity being made available.
The minister expressed the view that, sometimes, because of the choice of venue, when such opportunities arise, only a limited group of persons come to them.
He, therefore, proposed that a different medium of disseminating the films be used, in order to maximise on the opportunity to get the messages across to a truly representative sample of the population.
Said Anthony: “We have to find a new medium of disseminating films. We need to find a new medium to communicate that message and this is important. So, if we go the route of putting them on the television, we would be covering the whole country,”
He said coming out of a previous discussion he had with the Cuban Ambassador, there was a proposal that such films be made available to television houses so they could be broadcast for public viewing in different parts of the country, particularly, since many such activities are Georgetown-based.
The minister commented on the strides Guyana has made in promoting film making locally, recalling that, last year, with funding from Government, the ministry, collaborating with UG, embarked on a project which offers assistance to young film makers.
Five persons were trained and, with tutoring from UG, five films were produced and taken to New York, with the result that a lot of people were satisfied with the quality of what they saw.
He disclosed that, more recently, Government invested another $30M which would allow for more persons to be equipped in this regard.

GOOD STEP
“So we see this as a good step. It’s a step in the right direction and, next year, when we do the fourth Caribbean Travelling Folk  Festival, maybe we can have some Guyanese films as part of the showcase that we take to the Caribbean,”  Anthony said about the work in progress.
He spoke of partnership opportunities and saw the need for Guyana to partner with other countries, like Cuba, Mexico and Brazil, whose films have been shown in Guyana and so benefit from their tremendous experience.
The minister announced plans for a film making group from the Cameroons in Africa to travel here next week, as part of a collaborative effort with Guyanese.
“So, apart from showcasing the work of film makers, I think there is also an opportunity for partnering in joint ventures in the making of films,” he stated.
Having spoken about the Guyana-Cuba cultural collaboration, the minister also acknowledged their very strong, dynamic relations they have shared through the years.
He said Guyana has benefited tremendously from such relations and cited the tremendous service offered by the Cuban medical doctors and thanked Cuba also for scholarships that have caused Guyana’s cadre of doctors to grow considerably, with more than 500 now registered and working locally.
Cuban Ambassador Raul Gortazar Marreroi offered brief remarks in support of the Caribbean Travelling Film Showcase, in the presence of other Government officials and members of the Diplomatic Corps, among others.