THE DIGITAL MEDIA FILM PROGRAMME offered by the Ministry of Culture is attracting a larger number of participants.
?And Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Culture, Sports and youth, Ruth Blackman, has said the programme could be expanded to accommodate the growing interest.
She made the point while making the feature address at the graduation ceremony for the Motion Picture Arts certificate programme last week Wednesday at the Walcott Warner Theatre of the Errol Barrow Centre for Creative Imagination (EBCCI).
“For the next cohort, we have 50 persons who are registered and we can only accommodate 25 at a time . . . ,” she said. “ . . . What we will have to do is to expand the programme in a way that we can bring in some assistance because it seems to me a little hard [to] have to tell 25 of these 50 persons . . . we can’t take you on this year. I am still trying to work out in my mind how we can accommodate all [of them].”
The permanent secretary added that young people who were willing to contribute in creative and legitimate ways to the island should be encouraged.
“We should not leave any stone unturned to accommodate them as far as possible . . . . ”
Blackman also reported that graduates from the digital media programme, which was part of the Youth Mainstreaming Project, had found jobs in various parts of the local media landscape, with some becoming entrepreneurs.
Furthermore the graduates of the Motion Picture Arts certificate programme were products of the ministry’s initiative.
This programme was offered by EBCCI.
Two short films were shown during the graduation: Vengeance by Lee Trotman and Lisa Powlett’s Twisted. (LW)