Dear Editor,
I refer to ‘The rise and fall of Guyana’s cinemas’ by Godfrey Chin (Sunday Stabroek, July 26), and cannot help wondering why a nostalgic piece like this did not touch on the ownership of cinemas and look at how and by whom Hollywood and Bollywood films got into the cinemas in Guyana. This is important, because the real reason for the downfall of cinemas can only be told by those who owned and operated the cinemas. I am also disappointed by the lack of investigative reporting in Guyana. What are you afraid of? Walk with a recorder and let persons back up what they say. This will keep SN off the hook if utterances are deemed controversial. I am tired of these so called human interest pieces which do not delve into the lives of those who were affected and the motives of those who perpetrated the fall.
To get the full impact of the change of government influence on the fall of cinemas in Guyana please contact the family of the late Muntaz Alli of M Osman and Sons Ltd, of Rosignol, West Coast Berbice. Mr Alli owned about 90% of the cinemas in Guyana and had the sole rights to import all films into Guyana. His film business was located just next door to the Globe cinema. All films shown in Guyana came through this company.
I am pleased that Mr Chin intends to go deeper into this topic. He should consider the points made here before he moves forward with his article.
He must consider that certain TV stations got permission to show Indian movies before they were released to DVD and that began the opening of the floodgates when all TV stations began to do their own thing.
Before this law and even with bootlegged VHS shown at bottom houses, the cinemas still did business because persons wanted the better quality on the big screen. Of course, what I would like to point out here is that Mr Alli, in our business dealings, told me personally that he was a member of the PNC and that contributed to a lot of roadblocks after ’92.
Yours faithfully,
F Skinner
