AMANDA Wilson is a young and ambitious Guyana-born documentary film-maker who is among the new breed of independent film-makers seeking to inspire and inform their audiences by recording the cultural memories and legends of the Caribbean before those stories fade into obscurity.

Raised in Georgetown as the last of three children, Amanda is now based in London, but has travelled the world as a print and TV journalist. She started her career as a reporter for the Guyana Chronicle, and followed that by a short stint in the Virgin Islands, before working as a journalist, presenter, director, producer and editor for radio, magazines, newspapers and television stations across the Caribbean, Europe, Asia and Africa.

A former Media Director for a UK firm with media associates, including BBC, UK’s Channel 4 News, Sky News and Mail on Sunday newspaper, Amanda has spent much time in Africa as the editor of the bi-lingual (English and Spanish) news magazine Ceiba, which focuses on developments in Central Africa and how decisions in the West impact the continent’s progress.

Amanda has also produced political and financial stories on African leaders, including Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe, Nigeria’s post controversial military President Ibrahim Babangida, and Equatorial Guinea’s President Teodoro Obiang.

Her first Caribbean documentary, produced with her sister Andrea Wilson, who is a Director of Green Mango Media, was the 2010 beautifully shot and painstakingly researched project NOEL LLOYD: A PARTRIOTIC MAN, based on the Virgin Islands political activist Noel Lloyd.
“We did this documentary in the Virgin Islands because we wanted the legacy of this national hero preserved. We wanted his fight for equality in the Virgin Islands, and personal sacrifices, known by the younger generation at a time when young men and women in the Caribbean need more positive role models. It is the same reason I have decided to tell Cuffy’s story and his contributions to the making of Guyana,” she said.

She is currently in Guyana producing the documentary ‘Cuffy: Face of a Rebellion’, the story of the 1763 Berbice Slave Rebellion. The one-hour film, shot on location in Canje, Berbice, is based on extensive research of archives in Europe, the United States and the Caribbean, and is filmed on location in Berbice.

According to Amanda, the story will “educate modern audiences of the importance of Cuffy’s struggle, and secure a permanent legacy to his achievements for future generations.”
The young man who plays Cuffy is Delroy Brewster, whom Amanda described as a fantastic actor with a bright future. “(That) Cuffy was the best Cuffy that I could have, and he was a good trooper,” she said. The trailer was edited by Phillip Williams of CineGuyana.

Amanda said she was satisfied with the results done by local camera persons. She plans to complete filming by January 2013.

“The documentary will be aired across the Caribbean, Europe, and the United States in 2013, to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the revolt, (which will be) observed on February 23, 2013. We believe (that) making this film is a vital contribution to the celebration and preservation of Caribbean culture in a region flooded with narratives and messages from overseas. Our young grow up heavily exposed to American and European culture, with little of homegrown origin to counter that world view. Green Mango Media’s mission is to change that, and to turn the tables,” she said.

For Amanda, this is the first of several projects on Guyanese and Caribbean history. “It is time the Caribbean told her own stories,” she declared.

Amanda plans to venture into communities and interact with persons. Of her film, Amanda says she does not want it to be associated with a certain group of people, and she is opening it to everybody. “I want this documentary to not only add to the preservation of our history, but to get the debate going about identity and history. When it comes to Guyana, how did Guyana become Guyana?” she asked.

She argues that not many people know of Cuffy, except to say something like, ‘It’s an ugly statue’, referring to the 1763 Monument. “But the statue is abstract (art),” Amanda argues, reminding that no one knows what Cuffy looked like. “It was Artist Philip Moore’s interpretation of (Cuffy).

“In Jamaica, everyone knows who Nanny Cudjoe is, because they have made that effort. (They) don’t want a stranger to come in and say ‘oh you’re rich in history’, we should do our own documenting, (because) that means we get to tell the story our way. We’ve done a lot of documentaries on Africa. There are a lot of West Indians outside of Guyana who have never come home. I think we need to show them what they are missing,” she said.

Because of the characters, the language of Akan and the ‘broken’ Dutch, dialogue will be limited; but authentic dialogue as used in first hand sources will be used. Material for her project was gleaned from the National Library, the National Archives, University of Guyana library, and from a private collector. Persons who collected papers over the years have also emailed her.

The Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport is putting together a programme which will mesh well with Amanda’s projects. There are also plans to highlight the Cuffy commemorative coin. After Cuffy, she will be doing a documentary on Victoria Village, her ancestral village. She has a lot of projects on file, and wants to make sure that the next one is even bigger in terms of initial response.

Amanda now heads her own London-based media company, Green Mango Media. “I am often asked how I decided on the name Green Mango Media, and I have always gotten a laugh after explaining the origin. I grew up in Guyana and have always loved sliced green mangoes with pepper and salt. I still do. So when I decided to launch my company in 2011, figuring out a name was the easy part,” she said.

Check out the trailer for Cuffy: Face of a Rebellion on www.youtube/greenmangoGuyana