By Naomi Parris

VETERAN producer and long-standing member of the local entertainment community Gem Madhoo-Nascimento has finally broken her silence on the apparent rift between herself and fellow creative writer, Randolph Critchlow.

To back up a bit, some three years ago, the two decided to pool their creative juices as writer/director and producer to bring to local television the home-grown ‘sitcom’, ‘Days Like Dese’.
Back then, the series was reportedly set in the living room of a mixed-race middle-income Guyanese family of good standing and moral ethics. There were children, friends, grandparents, uncles, neighbours and cousins of various income levels and living standards.  Social cohesion was reflected deeply in the component of the extended family, while issues affecting our everyday life, such as domestic abuse, climate change, recycling, trafficking in persons, conservation of basic utilities all played a major role in the grand scheme of things, and the accent was on education through comedy.

However, from all indications, trouble had begun brewing in Paradise about two or so years ago, when Critchlow started to act strangely, and had basically dropped out of sight just when the company needed him most, as they were in the middle of doing Season Two of the show.
According to Madhoo-Nascimento, “Suddenly, he wouldn’t answer his phone, nor return calls, and I had to source other scriptwriters, including myself, to provide the remaining three scripts for that Season to satisfy my deadlines.”

Then, out of the blue, things would take an ugly turn around mid-September when Critchlow took to social media to issue a “Public Notice”, to the effect that he was claiming creative rights to the show’s title, along with any royalties associated with its use.

ATTACK ON HER CHARACTER
Nascimento, in an exclusive interview with the Guyana Chronicle on Thursday said she believes Critchlow’s decision to go public by way of social media is an attack on her morale and character.
“What I want is to establish my reputation, because of what it did when he went on Facebook,” Madhoo-Nascimento said, adding: “The whole story is about the sitcom; I was asked by a major sponsor to start up a sitcom. While I was thinking about it and how I’m going to conceptualise and so on, he came to me and said that he has an idea to put on a sitcom, and I said we could collaborate.”

She said that together, they brainstormed ideas to find a name for the script, and that what they eventually came up with was her idea and not Critchlow’s.
“We came up with a list of names for it… I chose the one, ‘Days Like Dese’, which is the issue he is making all this noise about it… When we had our contractual arrangement, it was for him as a creative person in the production; there was no difference for like, ‘I’m paying you for the name, and I’m paying you for the script,’” Madhoo-Nascimento said, adding:
“I hired him onboard as a creative person, but now he is making a big story that, ‘Days Like Dese’ is his name; that he came up with the name, and I must pay him royalty for it. That is the issue.”

According to Critchlow, however, “In the initial stages of the show, there was no name to it. It’s a very specific and narrow area I am talking about; I am not claiming rights to the show, but I am saying to her the use of the name is essentially my intellectual property.”
Madhoo-Nascimenmto told the Guyana Chronicle that in her almost 40 years of working in theatre and producing content for television, radio and plays, she has not once underpaid or deprived anyone of their creative rights.

“In all my years of dealings as a producer,” she said, “I have always discussed fees with whomever I am working, whether it’s an actor, a singer, a dancer… I’ve always paid everyone.”
She also disclosed that she has not heard from Critchlow since he took to Facebook to air his grievance, and that she has no intention of contacting him to address the matter. And neither will she be taking legal action against him, she said.
Critchlow, on the other hand, believes that the country needs an umbrella body to look out for the interests and rights of local performers when issues such as these arise, as in the absence of copyright laws, it’s difficult to iron them out.

He also spoke about the lack of cooperation in the industry, whereby many attempts were made in the past to discuss the creation of such a body, but nothing ever came of those meetings.
“There is a lot of competing interests and some persons may not agree that this is a good thing for the creative industry at this time, because it would put a lot of restrictions,” he told the Buzz in an interview late last week. “I think this is important so that issues like these, we would have a body to defend them,” Critchlow said, adding: “Nothing would be done without a proper contract, so in the event of issues like these, there is an organisation that is looking out for your interest. At the end of the day, these things happen, and we have no representation.”