-Secondary School pupils to be awarded honoured

Secondary School pupils who were victorious in a competition to create short films using mobile phones will be honoured at a ceremony slated for this Saturday, July 3, 2021 at the Ruimveldt Life Improvement Media Centre, Front Road, East Ruimveldt, Georgetown.
The pupils, winners of the Jubilee Schools Competition, will be awarded trophies and other prizes for having successfully produced intriguing films in the categories of ‘Minibus Culture’, ‘The Use of Social Media’, ‘Violence in Schools’, ‘Bullying’, ‘Corporal Punishment’, ‘Exams Pressure’, ‘Sexting’, and lastly, ‘Me and the Oil Industry and I can be an Entrepreneur.’
The competition was organized by CineGuyana, which was established on July 2, 2011 under the President’s Film Endowment Project. It is the only functioning and legally incorporated entity that represents in excess of 188 filmmakers, talent, writers and production persons in
Guyana. This year, CineGuyana will be celebrating its 10th anniversary.

According to the organisation, the film competition was opened to all Secondary Schools across the country, and ran from January 31 to February 2, 2020. An appropriate award ceremony for the pupils was delayed due to the emergence of the novel coronavirus and the pandemic that it caused.
In keeping with the previously established guidelines, the films were shot with mobile phones, and featured original ideas and scripts that were approximately three to five minutes long. The competition facilitated both individual and group entries. In November 2010, the then President of Guyana, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo created a small grant to stimulate a film making industry in Guyana. Dr. Paloma Mohamed, Director of the Centre for Communication Studies at the University of Guyana was tasked with managing the project which was named ‘The President’s Film Endowment Project 2011.’ As part of the project, each film benefited from a cast and crew which comprised of about 30 persons, all of whom were exposed to training which was designed and delivered by award-winning American filmmaker, Brian Zahm of Ohio University.
The participants of the training underwent a rigorous four months course, which entailed at least 12 hours per day sessions, inclusive of weekends.