Can we revitalize Guyanese literature through film adaptation?

Mar 06, 2017 News

I still recall, as a student attending a special viewing of the movie ‘To Sir With Love,’ the surge of pride I felt when Sidney Poitier’s character is quizzed about his origins and he replies: “British Guyana.”.
Though I would have appreciated seeing a Guyanese in the role, that pride is still there every time I revisit that film.
Sadly, the only other time I have heard Guyana mentioned in a movie has been in films, often hurriedly made, of the so-called ‘Guyana Tragedy’, in which 900 souls were tragically lost in the jungle community called Jonestown.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
There is a wealth of material lying quiescent in our works of literature with quite a few strong contenders for adaption to screen. For example Edgar Mittelholzer’s My Bones and my Flute could easily be classified as horror. Persons (during the 1980s) would recall being frozen with delicious fright and anticipation in front of their radio sets, as they listened enthralled to James Sydney’s masterful rendition of the novel as a radio play. The tale, which is set in 1930s British Guiana chronicles the trials of the Nevinson family along with the narrator (Woodsley) who are cursed after coming into contact with an old manuscript. They are first haunted by spine-chilling flute music that only they can hear however this is just the beginning of the horrors that will be visited upon them. Mittelhozer situates the bulk of the narrative in the mysterious interior of Guyana fully utilizing the “scare-potential” of that location. He superbly ratchets up the tension to a point of utter panic as the characters scramble to devise a plan to be rid of the curse and the evil that surrounds it.

Sidney Poitier in his iconic role in ‘To Sir With Love’

Notably a work of fiction written with the forethought of adaption to the big screen is Apata: The Story of a Reluctant Criminal by Harold Bascom. It centres on the character of Michael Rayburn Apata, whose future holds great promise, until a disastrous chain of events leads to robbery and assault, and climaxes with a major manhunt.
Other possible candidates in the genre of drama are Black Midas, Dear Future, Web of Secrets and The Coloured Girl in the Ring. Black Midas (Jan Carew) is a cautionary story about greed and the class struggle in postcolonial Guyana. The protagonist, Aron ‘Shark’ Smart, is orphaned very early in life and raised by his grandparents, who emphasize the value of an education. However when his education is curtailed and opportunities dwindle, Aron follows in the footsteps of his father and becomes a diamond prospector (pork knocker). Wealth quickly follows and the futile resolve to buy his way into the middle class. After failing disastrously and losing his fortune, Shark returns to mining recklessly which results in his being maimed in an accident, ending his quest in anguish. Dear Future(Fred D’Aguiar)utilizes several “voices” to tell the narrative of the youngest child ‘Red Head’ in a family who, after being accidentally hit on the head with an axe by his uncle, perceives the world from a surrealistic, dream-like viewpoint. The narrative examines the use of personal and political power.

Web of Secrets (Denise Harris) weaves a tapestry of fantasy, folklore and whispered family discourses to warn of the danger of repressing the past, while asserting the liberating strength of truth. The Coloured Girl in the Ring (Brenda Chester DoHarris) is an imaginary journey of a young Black woman coming of age in British Guiana, juxtaposed against the backdrop of the political and racial turbulence of the latter 1950s and 60s. Recollections of her family life, authoritarian school teachers, and her friends’ ill-fated inter-racial romance affect the choices she makes to break free from the ring of stifling poverty and racial insularity. As the narrative unfolds, an unforgettable tableau of recognizable sights, sounds and scents in colonial Guyana develops. Characters such as policeman Eustace, desperately in love with Shirley (a striptease dancer) succumbs to murder and suicide, a victim of his own recklessness; the drunkard Mr. Braithwaite, who kicks his family out; the black pudding ladies Ada, Ida and Edna; Bahadur the grocer, cake shop owner Ragunandan and Balgobin the milkman are fashioned with theatrical flair.

In a technology-driven world with access to numerous social-media websites to pass time, teenagers are reading less and less. Resuscitating the film industry in Guyana can therefore serve as a tremendous opportunity to channel the creative works of our iconic literary writers to the younger viewers and draw their attention back to books. Visual adaptations of these novels can capture their imagination and thus engage them with the characters and the storylines. They will be encouraged to seek out the actual books and develop their analytical thinking skills as they consider the structure of the film and how it differs or marries up with the structure of the book.
There is also an advantage in adapting radio dramas and stage plays to film, as it allows the producer to illustrate things that could not possibly be done in the theatre or on the radio. Some notable mentions that should make the transition to big or small screen are Ian Valz’s sidesplitting comedy House of Pressure, Francis Quamina Farrier’s enduring Tides of Susanberg; Grace Chapman’s spine chilling Green Bottle and Leon Saul’s For Better or Worse.
There is also Harold Bascom’s surreal, award-winning play, Makantali, and the graphic novels of Barrington Braithwaite. Incidentally, the late actor Norman Beaton created a play based on Braithwaite’s ‘Jaguar’ character.
Of import are the early advances Guyana had made into the film industry with productions like the musical comedy ‘If Wishes Were Horses’ (1976) starring Habeeb Khan and produced by Vivian Lee; ‘Operation Makonaima’ (1974) an entertaining B movie about a man framed for the attack and murder of his fiancé, who escapes from jail and hunts down the killers; and Agro Seizeman (1974) produced by F. Hamley Case. There was a considerable lull in the development of Guyana’s fledging cinema industry, but despite this, some films, though not edited locally, were shot in part or wholly in Guyana. The Terror and The Time (1981) by Rupert Roopnaraine and Martin Carter; and Lewanne Jones’ In the Sky’s Wild Noise (1983). These were followed by Jezebel (1991) by Paloma Mohamed based on the play of the same name that dealt with the topics of Infidelity and AIDS; Rainbow Raani (2006) by Pradeep Samtani and Mickey Nivelli; Guyana 1838 by Rohit Jagessar; A Jasmine for A Gardener (2012) by Mahadeo Shivraj; the collaborative effort of Shivraj and Neaz Subhanwith and a screen version of Ronald Hollingsworth’s Till Ah Find a Place. Last year, the movie Old Higue, was written and directed by veteran music creator, Bonny Alves, and his wife Charmaine Blackman-Alves, both of SSignal Productions.
In 2011, former President Bharrat Jagdeo pledged G$30 million to the ‘President Film Endowment Project 2011.’ This project was to supposedly initiate and aid discussion between the necessary stakeholders, to develop the local film industry. Last year as part of the Golden Jubilee events CineGuyana Inc. (a film company established in 2010) hosted a Short Film Festival, where eight short films were shown in St Ignatius, Anna Regina, Bartica, New Amsterdam and Georgetown. At the launch, Minister within the Ministry of Education, with responsibility for Sports and Culture, Nicolette Henry, disclosed that the government is investing monies into the local film industry to ensure its viability.
Commendable efforts, but one has to ask if showing these films to a limited audience does not defeat the purpose. Whilst the producers can always argue that an advantage of limited release is the ability to gauge interest for or against the film and thus conserve on marketing costs, it should be incumbent on our local TV stations to step up to the challenge and be instrumental in assisting to distribute the movies for viewing by a wider cross-section of the Guyanese public.
The artistic resources are already there. Guyana possesses an abundance of material as well as talented, experienced actors to spearhead such an ambitious project. Some of the funding that is being advanced towards the development of local film production needs to be earmarked specifically for such a venture. In this era of multiplexes in malls, high-speed internet and live streaming, where we are continuously inundated with movies and television shows from overseas, our identity is being eroded by foreign influences. Besides the obvious advantage of stimulating a love of reading in our children, book-to-screen adaptations of our local literature will reignite and engender a pride and appreciation in our rich Guyanese culture, folklore, locations and unique experiences, that has waned and been dormant for too long. These re-adaptions are also superb marketing tools for promoting Guyana to the wider world.
As an enthusiast of the written word with an appreciation for the visual medium, my earnest desire is for the younger generation to experience that sense of pride and belonging I once felt, while sitting in a darkened drama room watching Sidney Poitier identify himself s Guyanese.