Film
Guiana 1838, a film by Guyanese-born director Rohit Jagessar that depicts the arrival of indentured Indian servants to the Caribbean in 1838 following the 1834 abolition of slavery in the British Empire, was released in 2004.
The story of the cinema in Guyana goes back to the 1920s when the Gaiety, probably British Guiana's first cinema, stood by the Brick dam Roman Catholic Presbytery in Georgetown, and showed Charlie Chaplin-type silent movies. After the Gaiety burnt down around 1926, other cinemas followed, such as the Metro on Middle Street in Georgetown, which became the Empire; the London on Camp Street, which became the Plaza; and the Astor on Church and Waterloo Streets, which opened around 1940.
The Capitol on La Penitence Street in Albouystown had a rough reputation. The Metro pole was on Robb and Wellington Streets; the Rial to, which became the Rio, on Vlissengen Road; the Hollywood was in Kitty; and the Strand De Luxe on Wellington Street, was considered the luxury showplace.
Cinema seating was distinctly divided. Closest to the screen, with rows of hard wooden benches, was the lowly Pit, where the effort of looking upwards at the screen for several hours gave one a permanent stiff neck. The next section, House, was separated from the Pit by a low partition wall. House usually had individual but connected wooden rows of seats that flipped up or down. Above House was the Box section, with soft, private seats and, behind Box, Balcony, a favorite place for dating couples. These divisions in the cinema roughly represented the different strata existing in colonial society.
Read more about this topic: Culture Of Guyana
Famous quotes containing the word film:
“The obvious parallels between Star Wars and The Wizard of Oz have frequently been noted: in both there is the orphan hero who is raised on a farm by an aunt and uncle and yearns to escape to adventure. Obi-wan Kenobi resembles the Wizard; the loyal, plucky little robot R2D2 is Toto; C3PO is the Tin Man; and Chewbacca is the Cowardly Lion. Darth Vader replaces the Wicked Witch: this is a patriarchy rather than a matriarchy.”
—Andrew Gordon, U.S. educator, critic. “The Inescapable Family in American Science Fiction and Fantasy Films,” Journal of Popular Film and Television (Summer 1992)
“Lay not that flattering unction to your soul,
That not your trespass but my madness speaks;
It will but skin and film the ulcerous place,
Whilst rank corruption, mining all within,
Infects unseen.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Film as dream, film as music. No art passes our conscience in the way film does, and goes directly to our feelings, deep down into the dark rooms of our souls.”
—Ingmar Bergman (b. 1918)