After being approached by Birch Simon and Denis Ward Executives of Kross Kolor Records, in November 2010 the President of Guyana His Excellency Dr. Bharat Jagdeo created a small grant of US$50, 000 to stimulate the film making industry in the country. He appointed Dr. Paloma Mohamed, Director of the Centre for Communication Studies at the University of Guyana to manage the project which was named
The President's Film Endowment
Project 2011. Between January and July 2011, the experimental project grew exponentially in its reach and potential as Mohamed leveraged the resources of several other formal and informal partners – USAID, Ohio University, the Centre for Communication Studies at the University of Guyana, The Theatre Guild
of Guyana and several other private organizations. ThePresident'sProject whichwasoriginallydesignedtofund5shortfilmsbyfive independent film makers, morphed into a larger 8 film project which would
take the film makers from conceptualization, through script design , to
production planning, shooting, editing, post production to a world
premiere on July 7, 2011 at which the President of Guyana lifted the curtain. There were no limits except those of cost placed on the filmmakers 6 of whom have never made a film before. In total each film had a cast and crew of at least 30
all of whom went through rigorous 4 month training programme of at least 12 hours a day including weekends. The training was designed and delivered by award winning American film maker Brian Zahm, MFA of
Ohio University. The result is an interesting mix of themes and
genres all of which are expected to reflect a rich and often minimized Guyanese culture back to Guyanese and hopefully to the wider world under the CineGuyana brand.
