Film-making too expensive

I wish to reply to comments made on a programme on EMTV by a panel on Jan 10.
A local, claiming to be a film maker, said Papua New Guinea lacked film makers, especially females.
True film making is an expensive exercise with a lot of work involving a number of people.
I am not talking about button-pushers who work with small video cameras involving one or two people capturing images at random, thinking it is viable.
I am talking about real film making using sophisticated equipment such as Aaton 16mm cameras, Nagra sound recorders and an editing bench like Steenback for editing the recorded materials.
If you had done your research properly and some soul-searching, you would have found out there are already local film makers in PNG, both female and male.
There are four females: Maggie Wilson, Leonie Kanawi, Ruth Ketawa and Elsie Joseph.
The 12 males are: Pengau Nengo, Martin Maden, Baik Johnson, Sengi Nengo, Silas Tito, Kumain Kulaip, John Himugu, (London Film School) myself and four others whom I cannot recall their names.
These 18 people were selected on their merits by their respective provincial government grants to undergo and study aspects of film making at what used to be known as ‘Skul Bilong Wokim Piksa’ in Goroka.
This school was established by a one-hardworking Paul Frame and a French anthropologist, Prof Godolier, and financed by the French Embassy.
Out of all 18 film participants, six were selected to further their knowledge in this field of film making at a film school at Varan in Paris, France in 1986 – 1988.
I was one of those selected.
The result after Varan was the production of a feature film called ‘Tin Pis Run’ (check film Archive or French Embassy) wholly made by these Papua New Guineans from script writing to production.
Supervisors were two experienced film makers from France: Severan Blanchet and Roger Dujan.
This film Tin Pis Run was featured and premiered at what used to be called Wards Cinema in 1989.
All international embassies and a large PNG audience were present to witness this solely PNG production.
To say PNG lacks film makers is an insult, a derogatory statement and a slap in the face.
As I mentioned earlier, film-making is an expensive exercise, and most of these students could not afford to continue as our Government at that time in the 1980s did not have money to support our film industry.
Consequently Skul Bilong Wokim Piksa collapsed – a sad situation.
All who were trained moved on looking for greener pastures and endeavors, and other fields of employment.
As an individual, I was lucky to be employed by the film department at the Institute of PNG Studies with Chris Owen, a well-known film-maker, capturing and recording cultural events and habits for future generations to see in later years to come.
I have been in the film industry for more than 20 years and have 21 film credits in other international nd local films, both features and documentaries film.

Motu-Koita
Kira Kira Village NCD