Guyanese filmmaker, Mason Richards’ ‘The Seawall’ streams on Netflix

Mason Richards, creator of the award-winning short film, “The Seawall,” told Caribbean Life that the flick was a love-letter to Guyana many years ago, and that he was thrilled that since its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in France, it continues to generate views and new audiences since it’s been streaming on Amazon Prime.

The film is also being streamed on YardVibes-CaribbeanCreativity a platform for African and Caribbean film based in the Netherlands servicing international audiences.

“It’s exciting that the world is getting to hear our stories about Guyana, told by Guyanese nationals like me. The film is a powerful medium for that,” said Richards whose “The Seawall,” is a family drama set in Guyana’s capital city Georgetown, where the artist was born and spent his early childhood before moving to Brooklyn.

The film that tells the story of the relationship of Marjorie and her 10-year-old grandson Malachi, who is about to emigrate to the United States to join his mother – made its world premiere and was screened daily in 2011 at the Cannes Court Métrage as part of the 64th Cannes Film Festival’s prestigious Short Film Corner. It was shot entirely on location with a cast of first-time actors.

Richards is a graduate of the Film Directing Program, a writer, director, and founder of the company MR Productions, which creates film and television content that seeks to create a social impact.

He said, “the opportunity to collaborate with Guyanese curator and professor Grace Ali once again, with this exhibition at the MoFA at FSU is special because once again audiences can watch the film in person in a museum gallery setting surrounded by creative works by artists from around the globe.”

“I still have my Guyanese passport and this exhibition is all about the power of the passport and what that means for different people. For me, my Guyanese passport represents a very important part of my identity, as I’ll always be a son of Guyana. I left Guyana at age seven and returned for the first time as a full adult, when I made ‘The Seawall’ short film.”

“Since my last trip to Guyana years ago, my creative team and I are working on the feature film version of ‘The Seawall’ short — the current working title is “Beyond the Seawall” and follows our young protagonist Malachi, now an adult living in Brooklyn, who returns to Guyana for the first time since he left as a boy, and we see him deal with some of the issues many of us Guyanese nationals may encounter when returning “home” for the first time,” said the filmmaker.

“Like the short film, the “Beyond the Seawall” feature film we’re looking forward to once again showcasing beautiful Guyana on the big screen and telling our stories,” said Richards, who in 2012, was selected for Film Independent’s nine month Project: Involve program.

He was awarded the Sony Pictures Diversity Fellowship the same year. He has also served as faculty at Emerson College-Los Angeles since 2018.