THE directors of “Eating Papaw on the Seashore” – a Guyanese Coming of Age genre of film – are still reeling in the success of their work and are extremely proud of the short film’s achievements so far.

Released in 2022, the film was directed by Rae Wiltshire and co-directed by Nickose Layne and revolved around two queer Guyanese boys who are navigating their feelings in a homophobic society.

At the Baltimore International Black Film Festival, the film won the “Audience Award International Short” and at the Queer Voices: New York City Film Festival, it copped “Best Narrative Short” and was nominated for “Best Production Design.”

Furthermore, ‘Eating Papaw’ was part of the Locarno Film Festival, one of the biggest and oldest film festivals in the world. In fact, this year marked its 76th anniversary.

Wiltshire and Layne’s film was part of a segment called Open Doors which catered for Latin America and the Caribbean this time around. This film along with others from around the region were selected.

Not only were they able to screen the film twice in Switzerland, but the duo were also beneficiaries of timely training.

“There would be training in the morning and networking in the midday and the evening. They helped you build capacity and because you were surrounded by persons in the region….it provided the opportunity for networking with South American filmmakers,” Layne told Buzz this week.

“As Guyanese, we don’t get a lot of these experiences, it’s usually just Caribbean,” he added, noting that he and Wiltshire were able to travel to Suriname, Netherlands, and Italy before reaching Switzerland on the three-week trip.

Melissa ‘Vanilla’ Roberts, who co-produced the film, had described it as a story about love and how it navigates hate in darkness.
In an interview with Buzz, she had related how Wiltshire of Counterpoint Productions submitted a script to the Commonwealth Caribbean Voices Project for a competition they were having. Wiltshire was the only Guyanese selected from over 100 participants from around the Caribbean.

“I consider this great news for Guyana because it opened another window for the creative industry in the area of film,” pointed out Roberts, adding, “It’s a story about love; where love navigates hate in darkness. It’s a love than cannot ripen in light.”

Because the creative industry is small in Guyana, building a cast and crew can become challenging in the area of film, especially when there’s a unique story to tell.

“So Rae reached out to members of CeniGuyana who reached out to me because of my experience in film production where I worked not only in Guyana but Barbados and Los Angeles as well,” Roberts said as she explained how she became involved with the film.