The Kaieteur Falls will be featured in a 90-minute documentary on Guyana's interior to be filmed in Guyana over the next couple of weeks.
Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce Manzoor Nadir took a delegation, including Guyana's Ambassador to Brazil, Cheryl Miles and Ben J.H. ter Welle German Team Leader of the Guyana-Germany Natural Resources Management Project and media personnel, to visit the German film crew yesterday. The crew has been in Guyana for approximately 10-12 days.
Nadir told the group that this film would be released in October at the Wild Screen Film Festival in Germany and would be viewed by over 1000 stakeholders in the industry. The film rights have already been bought by cinemas and television in Germany, England, and Japan and are available for other interested countries. Nadir added that arrangements are being put in place to ensure that representatives from Guyana are present when the film is screened.
The film is said to be one of five at the festival to get top billing and is a unique opportunity for Guyana to sell itself. He noted that a contract was concluded between the government and the film producers allowing them to use the footage while the government keeps a copy of the film.
Unfortunately, because of copyright issues involved there is no definite date when Guyanese would be able to view the film.
Werner Herzog, an accomplished German movie director, who has been credited with putting Peru's tourism project on the map, explained that the movie would offer a new camera perspective on the abundantly dense forests of Guyana's interior.
The director stated that the perspective would be similar to those portrayed in films, which display underwater life, where divers can be seen floating around coral reefs, while filming without hindrance. This film is comparable in the sense that it would capture the images with the cameras "floating softly over the jungle," he said.
The location of the production in the forests of Guyana was chosen, the director said, "because it is totally unique... I have never seen anything like it in my life." Herzog said he was interested in capturing the water of the Kaieteur Falls as it thundered down, influenced by the pull of gravity.
"Ultimately people would be curious to see the film," he said. The movie could be viewed by around 100 million people.
He was reluctant to say exactly what form the movie would take, but offered that a specially designed airship, one of the distinguishing features of the film, and the waterfall would be main items.
The aircraft was designed and employed to float over the jungle with the slightest of noise allowing for the cameras to capture life forms in the upper reaches of the trees. The craft is a hot-air balloon with a rotor at the back. It involves the use of helium gas and is powered by a fuel cell that is also a recent technological innovation being used in some forms of public transport in the United Kingdom.
The team is also making use of a Global Positioning System (GPS), radios and air support from a light aircraft. The aircraft is a motorised hang glider that can stay airborne for two hours, weighs 300 pounds, ascends to 15,000 feet and goes at a top speed of 60 knots.
In addition to these pieces of equipment the film crew also has the smallest flying camera in the world. Also working on the film is the German husband and wife team of Klaus and Annette Scheurich who head the Marco Polo Film Company and are the producers of the film project.
Annette said the film due for an autumn release would last some 90 minutes. Dr Graham Dorrington an Aerospace Engineer at the University of London explained that the purpose of the ship was to get close to the canopy of the forest and said it was a new way to explore the high frontier. The ultimate aim is to get the beauty of the canopy since there may be yet undiscovered flora and fauna existing in the higher levels of the trees.
This particular craft is not noiseless but in comparison to a small aircraft or a helicopter is very quiet and the ship is also environmentally friendly because it generates no emissions.
Dorrington noted that the craft was designed for hovering and turning in tight circles, which is difficult for other craft such as a blimp. But it can only fly when the air is absolutely still. As a result he has been closely monitoring the environmental conditions and the best time is for about one or two hours in the early morning. (Christopher Yaw)