Documentary on Rupununi ranching launched
By Miranda La Rose
Cowboys and Indians - Ranching in the Rupununi, a local documentary, was last week launched at the Iwokrama Rainforest Programme headquarters in Georgetown to coincide with the annual Easter rodeo held in the Rupununi. The 45-minute film, produced by the Guiana Shield Media Project (GSMP), was shown to a select audience including media practitioners, representatives of Amerindian organisations and conservationists. The main aim of the film is educational and it is hoped that this and others will help viewers at home and abroad to learn more about life in remote parts of the country. Meanwhile the GSMP is conducting negotiations with two local television stations including the state-owned Guyana Television Broadcasting Company (GTV) to air a weekly television broadcast focusing on environmental issues, beginning as early as next month. Once this is launched, assistant sound and cameraman, Sherwin Blyden, said, the GSMP will look at placing a regular column on environmental issues in the country's dailies. Hopefully this could come into effect by August, he said. According to Blyden, the film is the first in a projected series of documentaries designed to showcase different aspects of life in the Rupununi. It was filmed during the period leading up to the rodeo held at Lethem last year. GSMP has already produced two others Poison in the Lifeline (a film about the 1995 Omai cyanide spill) and the Wapishiana Hammock, a short film about the Rupununi Weavers Society. Cowboys and Indians traces the history of cattle ranching in the Rupununi based mainly on interviews with ranchers and cowboys popularly known as `vaqueros'. Footage has been taken from a number of ranches including Dadanawa and Karanambo and highlights the "fascinating body of culture and skills needed to make a livelihood from ranching," Blyden said. The film also examines the difficulties faced by ranchers at the end of the twentieth century and analyses some of the possibilities for economic development as ranching becomes more difficult and less profitable. The possibilities include eco-tourism and wildlife conservation. The documentary was directed and produced by Ray Kril and Terry Roopnaraine. Filming, which included scenes of Amerindian life, was made possible through negotiations brokered with the Amerindian touchau and the people of Potarinau through the offices of Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports, Gail Teixeira. Blyden said that had it not been for the minister the filming would not have gotten underway in time. Other scenes shot during the filming are to be used in other documentaries still to be produced. The GSMP is an environmental project with a focus on the Guiana Shield. The Guiana Shield stretches from northeastern Brazil, through French Guiana, Suriname, Guyana, Venezuela and eastern Colombia up to the Andes. Inhabited by many indigenous groups, the region has become the focus of attention by several international environmental organisations and is considered exceptional as almost 90% of the terrain remains in a pristine state. Blyden said that the primary objective of the GSMP is to develop informative media products such as television broadcasts, video documentaries, CD-ROMs and websites about social, cultural and environmental issues in the Guiana Shield territory for regional and international distribution. The GSMP was undertaken by Black Eye International, a media cooperative based in the Netherlands with support from the World Wildlife Fund, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) - Netherlands) and the Prince Bernhard Fund. BWIA, Gelert, Cara Lodge and Roraima Airways were also supportive.
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