Sunday Newsday chatted with three of the directors of the non-profit organisation last week: Dion Boucaud, Lesley-Anne Macfarlane and Danielle Dieffenthaller.

The organisation’s fourth director, Mariel Brown, was absent.

Boucaud explained FILMCO arose from an exercise they had with a local television station that wanted to rebrand as “total local”.

He said they met with the station weekly to show how to provide profitable and sustainable programmes with local content. He recalled the station managers were amazed at how much foreign exchange they would be able to save.

However, in 2016 there was a change in the station’s leadership which cancelled the entire process.

Boucaud said, rather than cry and gnash their teeth, they decided to get together and “do it on our own”.

Boucaud explained the relationship between filmmakers and local stations is one-sided because stations charge for the content to be aired and the filmmakers also have to get their own advertising.

“It’s tiresome, it’s unsustainable, it’s hostile, it needs to change.” Boucaud said broadcasters seek cheap foreign programming and just sell commercials.

Macfarlane said one of the main goals of FILMCO, which was incorporated last week, is to aid in the creation of a sustainable system for local film and television and will do this through sustainable models, workshops and training. He said a main issue was that there was single body that could speak on behalf of filmmakers.As a result, they will bring filmmakers together as a group to approach broadcasters and Government. Boucaud said feedback on FILMCO has been positive since they launched their Facebook page in January.

“It is something that has been needed and wanted.” Boucaud said the film industry was booming at a point partly because of the TT Film Company (TTFC), for which he served as a consultant at one point. With the film company, he said decisions were immediate and the managers listened to industry players.

However, the film industry was at a “standstill”, after the previous administration implemented CreativeTT in 2013 and made film a subsidiary along with music and fashion. Boucaud said with this structure the new FilmTT has a board made up of filmmakers but they cannot make any decision without first going through the CreativeTT board. Therefore, decisions that took a week before now take a month.

“The whole film structure started to crumble.” He said the fruits of the TTFC can be seen in films such as Bazodee, The Cutlass and Play the Devil but now there is little momentum, noting many filmmakers lost their motivation and some left the country to find work elsewhere.

Now, FILMCO is creating a process where dialogue can take place and said they have engaged FilmTT which has been supportive.

Boucaud said to build the industry incentives are needed such as tax credits and duty free allowance on equipment.

Dieffenthaller governments do not understand the power they hold as creative people, adding there is a lot of lip service about supporting the film industry.

Macfarlane also observed students graduating from the film programme at the University of the West Indies find there is “nothing for them”, and older filmmakers cannot help them as they are struggling themselves.

“We all struggling,” Dieffenthaller added. Boucaud said government should remain involved in a national television station to “preserve our culture, (our) moral values, tell our stories, (and) educate the population on why they need to invest in the country.” Dieffenthaller said many people do not care about the country and that is why they can allow it to look like a rubbish heap, “The only time they see themselves is when they biting concrete.

The majority of people. Or in handcuffs, or dead on the front page or your mother raped. I mean, really, how are we selling this country? “Get us back to understand who we are. We don’t know who we are.” Dieffenthaller said FILMCO is not asking for handouts but for investment.

FILMCO will have their first meet and greet on May 5.

Number two seed Marcelle fell to the talented youngster Renales 21-19, 21-9.

Renales, the Trinidad and Tobago Badminton Association nominee for Sportswoman of the Year 2016, was scheduled to face Solangel Guzman in the final yesterday.

Guzman’s superiority was on show as she swept past Leanna Castanada 21-6, 21-2. The number one seed, who has dominated women’s badminton for the best part of a decade, is a formidable tactician who has won many local as well as regional titles.

Alistair Espinoza defeated fellow veteran Roger Moore, to set up a showdown with his nemesis Will Lee in the men’s singles final.

In the other semi-final, Lee had stiffer competition from his longtime time rival Naim Mohammed, before winning the match 22-20, 21-14. Espinoza and Lee both play for the Shuttleforce club located in Sangre Grande and know each other’s game well.

In the men’s doubles semi-finals, Espinoza and Lee defeated Hayden Bishop and Jason Ramjass 21-9, 21-13.

The pair will meet Mohammed and Sheraz Nabbie, who got past the Sinanan brothers Renaldo and Travis 21-19, 21- 16.

The women’s doubles final will pit the number one seeds Guzman and Renales against Castanada and Latoya Walrond.

Guzman and Renales got past the Mollah sisters Faith and Kelly 21-8, 21- 3, while Castanada and Walrond beat the number two seeds Marcelle and Stephanie Mitchell 21-16, 21-10.

The master’s round robin title was also decided yesterday.

Many of the players will be on show when the Caribbean Regional Badminton Confederation (CAREBACO) Championships are held in TT from August 10-25 at the National Racquet Centre in Tacarigua.

Therefore, at the last My Sister’s Keeper workshop by the Soroptimist International Newtown (SI NT), teenaged girls shared their experiences and were given safety, and self-defence tips.

“This particular one we decided to host because of the current climate of missing girls and increased violence against women. We wanted to have something where the girls could openly discuss, and gain some tips on safety and ways, specific to their age group, that they could protect themselves or another victim,” explained SI NT president, Nneka St Rose.

She told Sunday Newsday over 40 girls attended, about twice as many participants as was usual for the workshops. Held at the Ministry of Community Development in St Ann’s the girls learned basic safety tips, especially as many of them take public transportation.

These included paying attention to their surroundings instead of being on their phones, the best place to sit in a taxi, and safe actions when someone drives up to ask for directions.

In addition, St Rose said Margaret Sampson-Browne, retired Assistant Commissioner of Police, urged the girls to value themselves and to not allow their worth to be dictated by others. And to end the workshop, Master Cheryl Ann Sankar, former taekwondo Olympian, showed the girls various taekwondo moves for self-defence and how to escape an attacker.

That edition of My Sister’s Keeper was the fourth in the last year and a half. The first focussed on personal development, the second on non-traditional careers and the third on health and well-being.

St Rose explained that SI NT was one of six Soroptimist International clubs in the country and was the youngest, not only because it was started only seven years ago, but the members were the youngest as well. She said Soroptimist International aimed at educating, enabling and empowering young women by equipping them with skills and techniques to navigate life issues.

Their chapter chose to focus on teenaged girls, ages 12 to 16.

Sophia House on Park Street, Port-of-Spain, was one of its flagship projects. Initially, the members worked with the girls on a one-on-one basis but expanded the project to a workshop series where the girls could interact with secondary school students. Now, SI NT has developed relationships with several schools and homes for girls.

In addition to the workshop, St Rose said the group also hosts an annual poetry competition for World Literacy Day.

It also co-ordinates a Christmas Caravan, delivering necessary items to selected children’s homes.

Last year they decided to “switch things up” and SI NT liaised with one Santa Cruz councillor and instead helped three families in need.

Based on feedback, she said she believed the club was making an impact on girls and the country’s population in general, and she hoped it would be able to do even more in the future.

NAPA’s Lord Kitchener Auditorium and the outdoor plaza took on the spectacle of an international gathering as the guests socialised before the formal start of the event, taking in the sounds of the Goodwill Industries Steelband.

Officials said it was the largest conference to be held in the last 25 years and had attracted 800 participants.

Delivering the feature address in the Lord Kitchener Auditorium at NAPA, acting President of Trinidad and Tobago, Senator Christine Kangaloo praised the Rotary Club for using their passion, energy and intelligence to take action on meaningful and sustainable projects from literacy and peace to water and health.

She said that whatever the issue, club members were always working to better the world and had always made the world better.

She said one of the Rotary Club’s best known achievements had been the elimination of polio worldwide and no organisation in the world had worked as hard and as consistently for the elimination of polio as had Rotary. She said the club, with its global Polio Plus programme, was a model of international civil society and governmental co-operation.

Kangaloo said if today the world stands on the verge of the complete eradication of polio it was because the world started on the shoulders of Rotary’s efforts.

On April 22, the group of hikers boarded a boat to be taken to the island to an event organised by Adventure Seekers. However, the boat experienced engine trouble and passengers were left stranded.

A report stated the boat was overcrowded.

The report quoted the event’s organisers as saying two vessels had been chartered, Island Prince and Island Princess, for 90 hikers but the hikers boarded only one vessel as the other was unavailable.

The hikers were rescued by the Coast Guard after being stranded for three hours.

In a release issued to the media, the association said, “The Hiking Association of Trinidad and Tobago (HATT) notes with great concern, the views expressed via various media, following the incident on Saturday April 22, involving hikers who undertook to be a part of an event to Chacachacare, organised by Adventure Seekers of Trinidad and Tobago and involving the vessels, Island Prince and Island Princess. In this regard our aim is not to assign blame or guilt to any party but to draw attention to some important safety points…” The association advised, “Weather reports in regard to sea conditions should always be closely monitored by event organisers in the days prior to such events and on the day itself.” It added that in light of bad weather, events should be cancelled.

Boat captains, it said, had final say in whether an event should be undertaken. “Boat captains and event organisers need to avoid the loading of boats beyond their designated passenger capacity,” it said. Event organisers, it added, should stay close to participants and organisers had a responsibility to ensure their participants were suitably outfitted with life jackets. Organisers of such events should be certified in first aid and have first aid kits readily available.

The association said it “will be seeking in the coming months, to amalgamate all willing hiking interests in Trinidad and Tobago, with the ultimate aim of establishing productive working relationships between groups, so as to ensure above all, the safety of all who enjoy the outdoors.”

Hosein said demand and supply should be allowed to determine what the exchange rate should be.

He said a devaluation will, in the short term, affect the level of import spending in the country but over the long term it would increase the price of foreign goods. This, he said, will encourage households and other “economic agents” to gradually shift their consumption patterns, which have become very consumer-oriented, and that can help to dampen the amount of import expenditure.

He added that if appropriately managed, a devaluation can help to increase export revenue generation.

However, a devaluation will not work if the State continues to intervene in the labour market and starve the domestic private sector of important chunks of the work force tied up in make-work and other such programmes.

He made the comment in response to the latest downgrade of this country, this time by Moody’s Investors Services, which on Tuesday downgraded the country’s issuer and senior unsecured debt ratings to Ba1 from Baa3 and assigned a stable outlook. Moody’s action followed the other major rating agency Standard & Poor’s which on April 21 also downgraded the country.

Moody’s based its action on three factors: It found that the authorities policy response has been insufficient to effectively offset the impact of low energy prices on government revenues, as fiscal consolidation efforts have mostly relied on oneoff revenue measures. It concluded that there has been a steady rise in debt ratios driven by large government deficits and this has eroded the country’s fiscal strength.

Hosein said that indicates that the agency believes the State has been relying on one-off revenue measures which, he said, will come to an end at some point. He said apart from the property tax, the State has not been making a significant genuine effort to increase Government revenues. He said it did make some attempts in February 2016 with the Value Added Tax when it widened the net to include previously non-VAT items but reduced the rate to 12.5 percent from 15 percent

Imbert said the issues to be dealt with include whether the property tax is a new tax; how the system differs from the one used prior to 2009; processes for valuation and property tax assessment; what is the annual rental value and how is it calculated; what is the annual taxable value; do all properties in TT have a rental value; who is responsible for the valuation of the property; how often will a valuation be conducted on properties and explanation of the relevant provisions of the Valuation of Land Act and the Property Tax Act.

Imbert was unable to provide a cost for this ini tiative but promised to do so if the Opposition posed the question correctly to him. However, he added, “I am certain that the returns would be at least 100 times the cost.” Later in the sitting, Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Moonilal questioned whether 238 new jobs were created through the employment of people at valuators for the property tax.

Moonilal also scoffed at Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley’s comment that squatters would have to pay property tax.

“How much revenue do you expect to get from squatters?” he asked.

He and those who follow him blindly are clearly the ones suffering from, according to him, “post-colonial mentality syndrome.” Roget must see that it’s called globalisation, defined as the process by which businesses or other organisations develop international influence or start operating in an international scale.

Any country driven by a government with vision embraces globalisation in order to create sustainable growth and development for the betterment of the country and its people.

We have seen evidence of globalisation over the years with the introduction of visionary companies in various sectors such as automotive and transport, food and beverage, consulting, energy and gas, computer hardware and services.

These include Toyota Motor Corp, Coca Cola, PepsiCo, KFC, Nestle, PriceSmart, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ernst & Young, BP, Halliburton, Xerox Corp, and IBM, to name a few.

These organisations boost the economy by creating jobs at all levels and also partner with local suppliers and manufacturers for the supply of goods and services.

I wonder if Roget or any relative or associate has ever patronised or worked in any of the above companies or whether they boycott them because “massa day done?” So Roget, if BP can “take their rig and go,” should all foreign-based companies do the same? Will you be providing jobs for all, or only demanding them?

VASHTI BOWLAH

The school has been there going to waste with overgrown bush for a few months. Is there a lack of funding? The school looks 70 percent complete on the outside. Urgent attention should be given to its completion.

ANDRE ROBERTS via email

He said this meant , “the products that were imported prior to the restrictions imposed on March 21, are allowed to be returned to the shelves for retail.” Rambharat also said as matter of routine, the Health Ministry, conducts surveillance on food products entering the country to ensure they are safe for public consumption.

He added that sometimes his ministry is involved in this exercise.