Guyana Animation Network (Inc) and GAN Studios launch screenwriters database

Dec 31, 2023 Features / Columnists, News, Waterfalls Magazine

Waterfalls Magazine – Guyana Animation Network GAN (Inc.) teams up with its affiliate studios, GAN Studios, to launch a Caribbean and Guyanese film, TV and animation screenwriters’ database.

Guyanese Screenwriter, Xarielle Gittens

Screenwriter, Amelia Clover

The database aims to create a source of Caribbean and Guyanese talent for hire or exposure on both national and international projects as well as a network among Caribbean creators themselves. The idea to launch the GAN screenwriters’ database was co-created by Amelia Clover and Xarielle Gittens, both screenwriters and past students of GAN’s Scriptwriting for Animation Workshops in 2022 and 2023.

Jubilanté Cutting, Creator of the Guyana Animated Network (GAN)

Both Clover and Gittens also recently participated in the Animae Caribe Animation and Digital Media Festival 2023 in Trinidad and Tobago as part of the GAN Contingent. At the festival, both writers had the opportunity to meet like-minded creators and engage with industry professionals including producers, directors and TV networks looking for screenwriting talent.

“I was part of a small team representing GAN at the 2023 Animae Caribe Festival and we were amazed and impressed by the amount of Caribbean and Guyanese talent there,” says Clover, an animation writer and voice-over actor from the United States.

Gittens, a Guyanese screenwriter, added, “We thought, ‘Everyone should be able to work with these people!’ So Amelia and I created this database to help showrunners, executives, and GAN itself cast talent from a wider net.”

Jubilanté Cutting, the founder and CEO of GAN Studios said, “We’re hoping to discover animation writers with a variety of backgrounds/experience… to bring exposure to writers from the Caribbean and to provide more economic and/or collaborative opportunities for writers to work on diverse projects together.”

The initiative will run from 1st December, 2023 through 12th January, 2024.

The Guyana Animation Network (Inc.) is a non-profit organization based in Guyana with a focus on leading, contributing and activating change in Guyana’s animation and new media industries.

The current aims of GAN  are to provide upskilling and workforce development opportunities for creators in Guyana and the Caribbean. For more information, contact Guyana Animation Network (Inc.) and GAN Studios through their website at https://animateguyana.com/ganwritersdatabase .

• Amelia Clover, Creator of the Guyana Animated Network (GAN), Guyanese Screenwriter, Jubilanté Cutting, Screenwriter, Xarielle Gittens