ONE important reason why Guyana’s capital, Georgetown, possessed in past decades more of a social atmosphere of pleasure, leisure, and peacefully intelligent interests among the masses of people in their everyday lives, was because the city’s nine cinemas played a vital cohesive role in stabilising the life of citizens.
This may not seem an obvious fact today, because it was taken for granted in the past that such a public lifestyle and its social benefits would never come to an end locally. So much was it taken for granted that no local journalist, radio commentator, social critic or politician had bothered to openly state the vital importance and necessity of cinemas to the ongoing social cohesion of the Guyanese public.
Whether cinemas are being demolished and TV taking their place in some countries or societies should not make us blind to the good social function cinemas have always played in our society.
The truth of the matter is that intelligent Guyanese never had to openly declare the local necessity of cinemas, since the daily importance of such city businesses was proven by weekly reviews of films and film styles in the local press.
Secondly, our society’s social functionaries and leaders were repeatedly photographed attending or leaving numerous classic films at Georgetown cinemas, or their names were mentioned in the press when they attended every major film of quality.
For example, when `Anatomy of a murder’ with James Steward and directed by Otto Preminger, a confirmed masterpiece movie, opened at Plaza in the 1960’s, we not only see a photo of the late intellectual, diplomat, and later Minister on Foreign Affairs, Fred Wills and wife walking up Plaza’s stairs in the Chronicle, but read the names of the then Commissioner of Police, Ministers of Culture, Home Affairs, and Education, and various leaders of political parties also in attendance.
When `On the Waterfront’ with Marlon Brando, Eva Marie-Saint, Lee J. Cobb, directed by Elia Kazan, another awesome movie classic, opened at Astor in the late 1950’s, we see another newspaper photo of Forbes Burnham, then a young lawyer/politician, standing among a group of local waterfront workers in their best clothes, with a large poster of the film displayed on a wall of Astor’s lobby behind them. Astor had acted with social grace by giving all dock workers free passes to attend a matinee of this profound morally instructive film concerning the exploitation and misguidance of working class families by organised crime syndicates.
On a lighter note, in the 1960’s, we also see a Chronicle photo of a jovial Dr. Cheddi Jagan and wife Janet leaving Plaza after viewing the biblical yet social film, `Soloman and Sheba’, with Yul Bryner and Gina Lollabrigida. Our archives of newspapers are filled with numerous other pieces of public evidence of the importance of cinema attendance and classic films to Guyanese social functionaries and leaders.
Such social activities involving cinemas attended by all classes and races played a vital role in providing and maintaining a pleasurable and intelligent cohesion within Guyanese society. This everyday cohesion and stability is not achieved by other social activities alone, whether fashion shows, theatrical productions, sports events, or church programmes simply because such activities do not possess the everyday variety of frankly intelligent topics and pleasures explored by a diversity of good, or classic films once easily available on a daily basis in local cinemas.
Is it unthinkable that one of the major new contributions to afternoon and nightly idleness, and its dangerous repercussions in and around Georgetown, today, is the drastic reduction of cinemas with diverse weekly film programmes advertised well in advance? The possession of TV sets at home does not prevent or curb delinquent and adult idleness for a number of reasons:
(1) TV in Guyana is simply a small household gadget which quickly grows into a familiar habit, and often a mouthpiece for some of the most didactic and shallow local and imported programming; it has failed to match the exciting public structure shared with diverse fellow citizens that Guyanese cinemas once were.
(2) Television programming in Guyana especially film programmes, remain very badly planned; unlike local cinema programmes of the past, no movies on Guyanese TV are advertised a week in advance for 1:00, 4:30, or 8:30 pm shows. Youths who do not sheepishly follow anything aired have little to stimulate them. TV channels in Guyana do not sufficiently respect film culture. Movies are simply `entertainment’ badly chosen and badly programmed, simply promoted as `Movie’ or `English Movie’ at odd hours, with neither synopsis, ratings, actors, directors, nor year of release mentioned. Such crass professional standards were never tolerated by Guyanese cinemas. Also, the attention we saw of intelligent local figures to our cinemas in the past, only occurred because of the artistic quality and social worth of countless films shown then. Without such films, our cinemas remain dead.
The lack of a weekly TV guide and movie magazine with film photos, promoted and documented properly in detail remains a serious flaw in Guyana’s film and TV communications network today. Such magazines are able to thrive in North and Latin America, Europe and Asia especially, because by replaying and discussing films that have already proven their worth, a sense of civilised intelligent cultural value is maintained and conveyed to young and old alike. New films cannot be the only emphasis of such magazines because they possess little proven value beyond opening box office sales.
With cinemas offering good shows that change several times a week, Guyanese would once again discover a worthwhile use of their free time. Today, when we look around our neighbourhoods on afternoons and nights, on weekends, holidays, etc, we cannot fail to notice the large amount of idleness present. Sadly, gone are the days when cinemas structured our free time, when groups of excited youths fashionably dressed, or young children in the company of adults were seen going to or returning from cinemas, often seeing films that were quite thoughtful and educational.
The cinema serves such a collective and familial adventure. In the USA it was cinemas that first defied segregation laws and promoted civil rights. In Guyana, up to the 1970’s, cinemas served all Guyanese through diverse programmes in each cinema. Such collective social familiarity and friendship is a goal worthy of our interest, always.