Embrace Rihanna. Stop Criticising her.
Minister of Family, Culture Sports and Youth Stephen Lashley made this appeal to Barbadians Thursday night during the launch of the motion picture arts programme at the Errol Barrow Centre for Creative Imagination of the University of the West Indies (UWI).
“Barbadians need to embrace this young woman, this daughter of the soil,” he remarked. “I want to encourage Barbadians to support her as she continues to achieve greater and greater things.”
The singing superstar has come in for some criticism from Barbadians for her choice of lyrics as well as her on-and off-camera dress and behaviour.
“I?have heard some of the criticism of Rihanna and it has to be said that some of it is misinformed,” Lashley commented.
He said that Rihanna was very young. “No matter what else we may think, the reality is that this young woman has achieved success in a world in which never before has a Barbadian featured so prominently,” he added.
“She should be an inspiration to our young people, showing them the heights to which they, too, could rise.”
The course in motion picture arts has 21 participants – 20 of them Barbadians. It started on February 1 and runs until June 30.
The programme involves writing, editing, cinematography, production management and working with film-makers, including trainers from Cuba, France and Senegal. He told the gathering including director of the centre Professor Gladstone Best, manager of the centre Carla Springer and former Hollywood actor Earl Maynard that the course in film-making and video production was “a step towards providing the kind of critical expertise that is necessary if we are to develop a local and regional film industry”.
“It is one which offers training opportunities to young people in a non-traditional area,” he noted. “It is one which will challenge participants to be creative and to think outside the box. “I am sure that it will give them immense satisfaction to learn the various techniques of film-making. It will also serve the purpose of opening their eyes to the fact that this is an area which has very attractive career opportunities.”
Lashley said Barbados and other Caribbean countries had a number of very talented film-makers but greater technical expertise was required to bring their work to world-class standard.Lashley said that when people think of careers in the cultural and creative industries, imaginations usually jump to visions of creating another Rihanna, Denzel Washington or George Clooney.
“We often fail to recognise that these industries comprise not only the stars, but also a vast number of persons who provide essential support services,” he charged.
