Activity: Film screening
Co-ordinator: Moray House Trust
Date: Thursday 21 February 2013
This was a promotional presentation of ‘Maira and The Jaguar People’, a thirty minute film in the making. Dr Michael Gilkes presented a short clip from the film along with related clips from other film productions. The story is based in the Guyana rain forest and was conceived by Dr Gilkes. It is set in a small Amerindian community and the Piaiman (Shaman) tells the legendary story of Maira and her brother Mairun to the children gathered around his benab.
In his presentation, Michael Gilkes said: “We have to begin to reclaim, to reconstruct, our buried Guyanese native traditions of community, the Tumatumari or sleeping rocks of our polyglot cultural identity. This is and has been a major concern of our artists and writers and our film makers need to be concerned too.” Gilkes also quoted Denis Williams, Guyanese archaeologist and anthropologist, who wrote of the Amerindian legacy of community, respect for and adaptation to the landscape. ‘This legacy is the element in our heritage that the Europeans neither discovered nor destroyed. We cannot ignore it without great loss to ourselves.’
Video Clips
Introduction
Joe Singh introduced Professor Michael Gilkes and outlined his prior experience in film, theatre and teaching. Gilkes has had a longstanding interest in bridging the gap between the coast and the hinterland using the medium of film and storytelling. Joe Singh also told an amusing anecdote about a young Amerindian fisherman and a petroglyph, described some of the work currently being undertaken by Guyanese archaeologist George Simon at the Mountain of the Sacred Table near Annai and referred to research suggesting that jaguars range or roam across the continent from Mexico to Argentina.
You Tube Clip: http://youtu.be/Gl0FkmySPqo
A landscape of dreams
Michael Gilkes talked a little about his film project, set in the interior of Guyana. He also examined the ‘El Dorado mindset’ and the polyglot historical influences on Guyanese culture.
You Tube Clip: http://youtu.be/9zQVjsufal0
Diamond Gilkes
The film maker’s grandfather discovered diamonds in Guyana. He was rich for a time but died a poor man. Gilkes reflects on the powerful myths about the ‘wealth’ to be found in the interior.
You Tube Clip: http://youtu.be/FSejg0c4tUw
What the coast can learn from the hinterland.
‘We are part of a worldwide dilemma where wealth and cities grow and societies and people decay’, observed Michael Gilkes. Among the Orealla Amerinidans, the most important social concepts are respect for kinship and community and lack of respect or untruthfulness. Michael Gilkes quoted Denis Williams and Gordon Lewis to illustrate his point about the depth of knowledge, history and culture to be found among the Amerindians peoples of Guyana.
You Tube Clip: http://youtu.be/baIbM9WdzdM
Growing Up Caribbean
Penelope Hynam, producer of ‘Maira and The Jaguar People’, talked about the series of films envisaged and how they came about.
You Tube Clip: http://youtu.be/6vufaKAa4b8
Press Clipping 1
All about `Maira & The Jaguar People: A Story from the Guyana Rain Forest’
Source: Stabroek News, February 22, 2013
Director, Playwright and Author of several short films and books about the Caribbean, Michael Gilkes, explained the inspiration for the short film “Maira and the Jaguar People: A Story from the Guyana Rain Forest.” Gilkes explained that the film is based upon the story of a young girl who happens upon a jaguar while exploring the rainforest with her brothers. The event was an introduction to the short film on Thursday, February 21 at Moray House.
Penelope Hynam, the film’s Producer explained that the idea to create a film series, or which ‘Maira and the Jaguar People’ will be a part, was born after she attended a Film Festival in Barbados two years ago. Hynam expressed her surprise and delight at the volume of “wonderful” short films that were featured by Caribbean directors and writers.
(Photo courtesy of Stabroek News)
The attendees at Moray House for the Moray House Trust short film introduction of `Maira & The Jaguar People: A Story from the Guyana Rain Forest’ included well known members of the film fraternity, Francis Quamina Farrier, Dr. Paloma Mohamed and several others.
Press Clipping 2
First film in series ‘Growing up Caribbean’ to be shot among the Makushi
-says film-maker Michael Gilkes
Source: Stabroek News May 26, 2013
Film-maker Michael Gilkes promises to give viewers an insight into the lives of the Makushi people living in Surama Village in the Rupununi in an “exciting and interesting way” when he rolls out his new film titled ‘Maira and the Jaguar people.’
It is a story about children and the film is the first in a series of 14 films to be shot in different countries under the theme ‘Growing up Caribbean.’
“It is the first because we have the first peoples here and it is the only one that will focus on the interior, the rainforest,” Gilkes told the Sunday Stabroek in a recent interview.
Most of the actors are expected to be Amerindian and children will be central to the film. He said the main characters in the film will be Maira and her brother Mairun and he has already found the children to play that role and rehearsal has commenced.
(Photo courtesy of Stabroek News)
The films in the series are expected to show how children grow in the Caribbean and are set to be entertaining and interesting with original stories written by Caribbean writers.
Gilkes, who has undertaken several film projects, the last being Concert in the Rainforest with the Wai Wai people, said they want to start shooting the film in November and the preliminary work has already begun.
At present the project awaits government funding which has been promised, but in the meantime the private sector has also pitched in and this has facilitated two preliminary trips to the Rupununi.
Gilkes is the writer and director of the film and he said it is based on what he has learnt of the interior and its people.
“So it is based on their lives and their traditions,” he said, adding that the film will be the flagship production for the series.
He envisions that the film will attract people to Guyana as it would present the country in a different light that many may never have seen.
“You are seeing it [Guyana] from the perspective of the Amerindian people, from their eyes…” Gilkes said.
He explained that the Surama people would build a film village for them so as to minimize the disturbance to the villagers during filming. It is expected that the village would then become part of the community’s eco-tourism facilities and would accommodate persons who visit the area.
“So it is a useful thing we are doing both for the Amerindians and for ourselves; what we would be doing is showing Guyana from another perspective and we would attract people.”
Gilkes noted that when visitors go into the rainforest it is to see the flora and fauna and it is never really about the people, so the whole community of the Makushi people would be featured in an “exciting way.” During the film Maira and her brother go into the forest and meet a talking jaguar and they learn from the experience that they have to respect everything, even death. The music of the forest, such as the bird songs and sound of the flute, are to play a big part. They and the viewers are taken back in time as the films unfolds, and they are caught up in a dreamlike drama of life and death with the talking jaguar when they lose their way in the forest to look for the elusive ‘flute-bird.’
Since they discovered the jaguar’s secret he refuses to allow them to return to the village and they are sad they must become ‘jaguar people’ like him. However, later the jaguar attacks them, and in the end the brother kills the animal and saves their lives.