Three more cinemas will cease operations from today and film distributors are blaming the government's sloth in updating the Copyright Act.
General Manager of Global Films, Narima Khan, told Stabroek News yesterday that because of continued piracy by local television stations, the body had been forced to close the Olympic Cinema in New Amsterdam, Berbice; Regal Cinema at New Road, Vreed-en-Hoop, West Coast Demerara; and Kaydonna Cinema at Triumph, East Coast Demerara.
"Some days there are eight to ten people [at shows]," Khan stated. Kaydonna was closed last June, but reopened in December, since, Khan said, the political climate had calmed and she thought patrons would begin attending again.
More vocal on the situation, Assistant Secretary of the Film Distributors and Exhibitors Association, Dilip Singh, told this newspaper, "We are still reeling under piracy. People are not coming out [to the cinemas, since] most films are already seen on television or borrowed from the video clubs."
The showing of Scorpion King and Blade II reinforced Singh's argument about the need for copyright laws. "A lot of films are ending up in Guyana which have not been released officially in the United States... nobody here is asking anybody if they have rights," declared Singh, who is also the manager of Ginata Films. He pointed out that only two film companies were struggling to continue operations here - his and Global Films (Guyana), since, according to him, "the illegal business has taken over the legal business."
Just recently, Canadian High Commissioner, Serge Marcoux, touching on television piracy in Guyana, said it was "high time that this form of theft, as defined by all countries having adhered to the international copyright convention, comes to an end... Too often, we see on different channels, pirated video cassettes, or programmes simply rebroadcast from different satellites without the permission of the rightful owners."
Although cinema managers are complaining of piracy, Khan yesterday accused some cinema owners of installing video projectors in the cinema, and showing cassettes borrowed from video clubs. Nonetheless, Singh pointed out, the cinema industry has lost a considerable amount of money, since, he said, many times when the cinemas start to screen hit films, television stations immediately begin to advertise the same films.
"We have lost a lot of money... Oceans 11 was a total failure. We lost money on Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, because before we could have finished showing Lord of the Rings, it was on TV," Singh lamented. He added, "We are up against it and there is no stopping. Everybody doing their own thing." (Kim Lucas)