Ambitious youth introduces website to celebrate Guyanese

Jul 27, 2014 News

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By Sharmain Grainger
At first glance you just might run away with the belief that it is merely another entertainment website and not very different from those already in existence. But careful examination would reveal that www.Gtmemoirs.com is more than just a regular website highlighting issues of an entertainment nature, but rather, it zeroes in on the varying laudable potential of Guyanese.

Created by Damien Lewis, an ambitious 33-year-old, Covent Garden, East Bank Demerara, resident, the website is one that has the potential to considerably evolve while at the same time ensuring that various endeavours of Guyanese personalities are not only known but respected the world over.
But why would a young man with limited resources embrace a passion that seeks to promote locals. The answer to that is rather simple, as according to Lewis, while he was obsessed with all things entertainment and was initially very much integrally involved in this arena, his limitations had in fact prevented him from doing things just the way he thought was ideal.
With this recognition he simply decided to rethink his approach and instead saw the need to highlight those who had the wherewithal to do what he couldn’t.
After careful planning, complemented by his understanding of the Guyanese entertainment vibes, Lewis in 2009 decided to introduce Gtmemoirs. During a recent interview with this publication, he recalled that his vision for the website was crystallised as he offered his audio/visual expertise to the 2009 Guyana Fashion Weekend event.
“One of the things I noticed was that whenever we were tasked with doing, videos or flyers… not only with the Fashion Weekend Committee but throughout the country…everybody was using a foreign image; there was hardly a local image for a local event,” Lewis candidly reflected.
This understandably resulted in him eagerly embracing the idea of setting-up a business that not only promoted the use of local images, but offered a quality that was second to none.
“I started thinking why not start a company which will encourage photographers to share their work with [event] promoters and organisers so that when you see a flyer for an event you see a Guyanese displayed instead of a foreigner,” Lewis intimated.
He related too that he was bothered by the fact that efforts were hardly ever made to ensure that following a grand event there were no recordings available in at least Digital Versatile Disc (DVD) form.
Moreover, he saw an opportunity to remedy the prevailing situation. This saw him working behind the scenes, video recording events and ensuring that they were of a high quality and available for others to view at a later date too.  For at least two years he was able to fulfil this dream.
He was even able to create a special Event Documentation Unit which catered specifically to photography and videography of each event he took on. Things were going well, perhaps a little too well, as before long what appeared to be a lucrative venture was soon taking a ‘nose dive’.
“I started thinking: what was I doing wrong? Why did it ‘nose dive’? Then I realised that a well established entity would basically speak to a promoter and say look we would do the job for a fraction of the price,” recalled Lewis.

“I would put together a crew of four or five persons and pay about $100,000 but still had to cater to equipment. The cost to do an entire event was about $300,000 and the other entity was charging promoters a mere $100,000 to do the same thing; I couldn’t compete with that,” Lewis said.
Maybe he could have accepted defeat with pride if his competitor’s end product was of a high quality. But according to Lewis “it was as if they were shooting video just because they had a camera. There was no thought behind it.” Although unimpressed by his rival, he had no choice but to quietly remove himself from the scene. It simply was not feasible for him to follow his passion any longer.
Instead he resorted to taking on a few small jobs here and there. Several members of his team also branched off into similar fields, a development that Lewis said that he certainly wasn’t unhappy about since it meant there were a number of people, with similar passion as his, doing quality work in the entertainment world. He had long realised that “there was so much to be done and I certainly couldn’t do it all…”
But there were yet some persons whom he believed were not getting the recognition that they so deserved.
Lewis was soon considering a way forward that could help to highlight the work of the various deserving talents including local celebrities, sports personalities, among others; a move through which Gtmemoirs.com was born.
However, the evolution of Gtmemoirs.com will not only see the popular personalities gaining attention, as according to Lewis the simple down-to-earth individuals will have a place to shine as well.
“I want to capture everyday people – the bus driver…pull him in and have an interview with him and just put his story out there,” Lewis said. He noted that while this may not be appealing to all individuals, the primary intent is to “give people, especially the youths, somebody local to look up to…This is to help people gain inspiration…because we don’t have too many people to look up to today. We have to celebrate our own,” added a passionate Lewis.

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