Why Burnham intervened in the making of Aggro-Seizeman

Mar 04, 2010 Letters

Dear Editor,
I refer to Kaieteur News article of Sunday 28 February, captioned “Local film industry may finally receive much needed support –President.”
I wish firstly to make a small correction. The 1974 full length feature film Aggro-Seizeman was produced by myself and not directed by me. In fact there were two directors – James Mannas an American film-maker and our own Brian Stuart-Young.
As a film buff and an avid watcher of DVDs I see many films which could easily have been shot in Guyana. I refer particularly to films which have a jungle backdrop or use dense tropical rainforests for location filming.
For example, depending on the extent of modern techniques employed to film Avatar I believe a lot of the outdoor scenes could have been produced here in Guyana.
While watching films like Greystoke shot partially in Victoria (Limbe), Cameroon, Anaconda and The Medicine Man, I instantly realised that these films could have been shot here.
Often US film companies, largely for logistical reasons, force of habit or for security and insurance purposes, use tropical locations considered less hostile than Guyana. In many of these out-of-the-way locations English is not spoken. Consequently this is one major advantage that Guyana has over the competition that needs to be exploited. But do we market Guyana as an advantageous film location?
Aggro-Seizeman was shot in 35mm and filming it in 1974 was extremely difficult. My source of inspiration in making the film was Mr. Len Beharry who produced “If Wishes Were Horses” and encouraged me to film Seizeman after he had read my script.
Many persons were convinced the film would end up on the down heap and never actually reach the screen. Many placed bets on my failure and all lost.
I was 28 years old when I started filming Seizeman. However, it was clear that Mr. Hamilton Green believed
I could pull it off and he became a source of encouragement as did Mr. Elvin Mc David.
I had completed almost 75% of the filming when Forbes Burnham intervened. I was summoned to his office and taken by surprise by what he had to say. Apparently he was seriously concerned that “one of our own” Ms. Nalini Moonasar (Miss Guyana 1972 or 1973) had been languishing in London after representing Guyana in the Miss World contest. Looking me straight in the eye and coming to the point he asked that I consider scripting a part for her in the film so she could return to Guyana for a few months at least.
This I did and she shared the billboard with the two leading actors. Later on I found out that it was Guyana’s High Commissioner to London, Sir John Carter, who had been pestering Burnham to find suitable employment for Nalini in Guyana so she could return home to a tenured job.
During the filming of Nalini’s scenes at Matthews Ridge in the North West District Burnham called me several times simply to ask, “How is our little Miss Guyana doing?”
However, he never actually met her.
F. Hamley Case

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Why Burnham intervened in the making of Aggro-Seizeman

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