• USA-based Guyanese filmmaker Mason Richards is aiming to shoot the Guyana leg this year

By Frederick Halley

FOLLOWING the completion of the Queens, New York, “Little Guyana” segment of his highly anticipated feature film, Beyond the Seawall, USA-based Guyanese award-winning filmmaker, professor, and creative producer Mason Richards is aiming to shoot the Guyana leg sometime this year.

According to Mason, who was in Guyana a few months ago, production plans are well advanced, with the main actors being Guyanese-born CCH Pounder and Joseph David-Jones.

Beyond the Seawall is being filmed in Guyana and Brooklyn, New York, with some scenes also shot in Shreveport, Louisiana.

Mason disclosed that “shooting will take place in Georgetown and Linden and obviously on the Seawall.” He also noted that Kaieteur Falls will be included, since part of the script tells the story of Chief Kai to highlight the diversity of Guyana, including Indo and ethnic diversity, such as Amerindian villages.

The writer/director/producer, with 20-plus years’ experience in the entertainment industry, revealed that Beyond the Seawall builds upon his short film The Seawall.

Mason Richards’ narrative short, The Seawall, captures a poignant moment in Georgetown as a grandmother prepares her 10-year-old grandson for his migration to America. The film gained significant acclaim after being featured in the Liminal Space exhibition, curated by fellow Guyanese-born scholar Grace Aneiza Ali, who described the work as “poetic in every sense.” Building on this creative synergy, Ali—whose curatorial work centres on global migration—has joined the producing team for Richards’ upcoming feature-length expansion. The duo is currently inviting strategic investment and philanthropic support to scale this resonant narrative of the Guyanese diaspora for a global cinematic audience.

The cast and crew of the short consisted of local Guyanese non-actors, non-professionals, and students from the University of Guyana who worked alongside Mason and his Los Angeles crew. The film offers a rare glimpse into the day-to-day lives of a Guyanese family, and stunningly captures how emigration affects those left behind.

Mason disclosed that, although heartbreaking, The Seawall is a fundamental story about hope and optimism. In addition to being Mason’s graduate thesis project at the renowned Film Directing programme at CalArts, the film allowed Richards to return to his home country, Guyana, to share what he has learned about filmmaking and tell a story “in the community – with the community… Guyana is a beautiful country with good people. I wanted to make a tonal film that captures the essence of a few people’s experience in the country I love so much.” The Seawall short film can be streamed on YardVibes, part of the Caribbean Creativity initiative, on Vimeo On Demand and on YouTube.

Richards is the recipient of the 2012 Sony Pictures Entertainment Fellowship, presented as part of Film Independent’s Project Involve, a donor-named award designed to provide critical financial and professional support to an outstanding filmmaker with the potential to impact the film industry through global-minded new films from a new perspective.

He earned his MFA in Film Directing from CalArts, where he wrote and directed several narrative short films, including his thesis, The Seawall, which had its world premiere at the 2011 Festival de Cannes and has gone on to screen at the Havana International Film Festival in Cuba (2014) and several festivals around the world.

Mason’s immersion in the arts began as a teen growing up in Brooklyn, working as a professional actor in NYC’s theatre scene, and attending City-As-School—the legendary Manhattan alternative high school known for its experiential learning model and a radical alum roster that includes Jean-Michel Basquiat, Mos Def, and Julia Fox.

He directed his first play, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf, during his freshman year at Vanderbilt University while earning his undergraduate degrees (BA in English, BS in Human Development). The production received rave reviews and marked Mason’s transition from being onstage to offstage and ultimately behind the camera.

A professor of film directing and screenwriting, Richards has curated several Community Outreach Programmes in collaboration with BAFTA-LA (British Academy of Film & Television Arts), Actors4Autism, The Young Storyteller’s Foundation, The Bill Duke Foundation, Tina’s Angels/Richard’s Warriors at the WACO Center, Hands4Hope-LA, and The Actor’s Fund, providing film courses and workshops to communities often underrepresented in terms of identity, gender, and ability.

Mason is an affiliated faculty member at Emerson College-Los Angeles and a regular ‘Filmmaker in Residence’ at Ithaca College. Mason also works as a Creative Consultant, Speaker, and Facilitator of cross-cultural communication for numerous non-profits, colleges, and universities internationally, and produces digital content and mini-docs around inclusion and intersectionality.

Mason is also the co-founder and owner of The A.M. Creative Agency, a full-service creative agency and production house based in Los Angeles with associates in Guyana, New York, Miami, and London—creating inclusive content globally—and works as a consultant on brand marketing, utilising his expertise in both organisational and brand development through the lens of creative storytelling.

The A.M. Creative Agency recently announced that international recording artist Juke Ross, the Guyanese-born singer-songwriter hailed by Rolling Stone for his “aching” and “soulful” sound, released the official music video for his latest single, Coffee Love.

Directed by Richards, the project marks a historic milestone for the nation’s burgeoning film industry as the debut production from The A.M. Creative Agency Guyana. The video is currently premiering on all major streaming platforms, launching on April 10.

According to the agency, “Filmed entirely on location, Coffee Love serves as a vibrant visual love letter to Guyana’s capital. The production blends the historic elegance of the Herdmanston Lodge Hotel in Queenstown with the raw, authentic energy of the Tiger Bay district. This cultural collaboration was made possible through the dedicated support of Clinton Urling of the iconic German’s Restaurant and Guyanese superstar Timeka Marshall, both of whom served as key champions for the project.”

The Coffee Love production functioned as a hands-on masterclass, featuring local cinematographers mentored by Richards. This marks the first official project produced by The A.M. Creative Agency Guyana, an extension of Richards’ U.S.-based firm.

In tandem with the agency, Richards is launching The AM Creative Academy. This professional training arm is designed to empower local writers, directors, and production designers with the technical skills necessary for direct employment within the agency, ensuring Guyanese stories are told through an authentic Guyanese lens.