My friend Dalton Narine has finally completed his film tribute to Trinidad's internationally acclaimed artist Peter Minshall, who's career as a Carnival mas band producer revolutionized and re-energized the Carnival Culture of Trinidad and Tobago.
Dalton poured his heart, soul and financial resources into this production of the documentary film "Mas Man", and I think that the result is a unique and stylish cultural masterpiece.
This award winning production is now available in a three DVD set, and I highly recommend it to all culture lovers, everywhere.
In an article in the Trinidad Guardian of September, 20th, 2012 Daltion describes his trials and tribulations encountered in producing this important piece of work.
http://www.guardian.co.tt/lifestyle/2012-09-19/making-mas-man%E2%80%94-end-surreal-journey
On reading this article, an almost throw away comment caught my eye.
I quote" He (Peter Minshall) still can’t fathom the truth that the best footage is recorded on 11,000 tapes that dwell in 500 boxes in an old rum bond in Laventille. They remained untouchable for five years during the making of Mas Man".
In conversation with Dalton, he informed me that after going through an investigative process that would have made Sherlock Holmes proud, he found out that over the years the Trinidad government has been taping the Carnival and Steelband activities, apart from the commercial TV coverage, without commercial interruptions , and these 11,000 quality video tapes are stored in 500 boxes stored in the old Angostura Rum Bond in Laventille, gathering dust and decaying as time passes.
Unbelievable!!
No effort is being made to archive and preserve this valuable art.
Something has to be done, before its too late!
Replies
If Mr Narine on his OWN could find and sift thru all this culturally relevant historical info about Mas and Pan and Carnival in general?? why do we have a Minstry of Culture (oooopps multi culture)?? Whats the purpose for their existance??? and why is PanTrinbago NOT out in the forefront on this too??? That perplexes me. Big up Mr Narine.. paddy corea
What I can't understand, Paddy is why they made those videos in the first place. Was it just to stockpile them, and allow then to deteriorate over time?
Magnetic media such as audio and video tape have a limited life span, and film is even worse. In time, they will be all gone, unless preserved.
Probably on those Tapes are the recordings of the first Panorama in 1963 and those that followed in the 60's/70's . That would be a Panman's gift if it could be made available . As regards the Mas productions one factor we must consider is the Technology and types of materials that were available at that time . In the early days all these light weight metals that are very strong and fabrics , decorations etc that are now made from plastic were not available so to produce a Tan Tan and Saga Boy in those days would surely have been a big challenge to make and also to display it . I agree that all these Band Leaders were Great and they all deserve the highest recognition for their contributions . Thanks .
I'd bet that there's a treasure trove of unpublished Panorama video tapes decaying in the Rum Bond.
These tapes may not be available to the general public, but an organization like Pan Trinbago should be able to acquire them.
Tapes could be edited and published and made available for purchase, and would be an ideal way of generating revenue to create funds for pan pioneers who've fallen on hard times
Remember the old saying"Where there's a will, there's a way"?
Or to quote one of my favorite ballers, Kevin Garnet, after the Boston Celtics won the NBA championship in 2008, "Anything is Possible!"
Glenroy, only in Trini, you could find a few boxes of valuable cultural tapes rottening in a Rum Bond somewhere. I wonder why is this???
And BTW, contrary to what some may think, video tape doesn't last forever. They decay with time. That's why there's an ongoing project in the US to digitize old movies and TV shows as cultural artifacts.
The news about the 11,000 Carnival tapes left to decay instead of being the foundation of national archives on our culture is almost unbelievable. I say almost because it is not surprising to me and lines up with the Pan Trinbago fiasco. I guess we have no love of our gifted citizens and no appreciation of how precious this is. Dalton thanks for making this public. Now we must find ways to have you get access to these tapes and be the documentarian of the works of all the other great Carnival artistes - George, Harold, Wayne,Terry and so on. I hope so. Time to turn the heat on the Government.
The same way Mr Narine found those 500 boxes maybe he could find 10 good people to help him convince the Newspaper, Radio and TV people in T&T to retrieve these tapes and archive them. What does the Ministry of Culture have to say about this?
SOME PEOPLE ARE IN SHOCK, BUT YOU KNOW THAT I KNOW KNOW THAT THEY FULL WELL KNOW.
THE COLLECTION INCLUDES MANY YEARS OF PANORAMA AND CARNIVAL TAPES.
Glenroy: Thanks for posting this important information. I am hopeful that this initiative would avail Mr. Narine the
financial backing to document the works of other "Mas Personalities"....now that a huge source has been identified.
Where can I acquire these DVDs??
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