To encourage UWI and UTT students seeking to further their education in film and digital media, the T&T Film Company (TTFC) has consistently given financial support to these programmes in the form of bursaries. “These bursaries are vital to giving students the ability to focus on their studies,” said Dr Christopher Meir, head of the Film Programme at UWI, St Augustine, in response to an e-mailed request for comment on the 2013-2014 bursaries to be awarded to students in his department. “By doing so, they in turn learn their craft better and are better placed to contribute to the growth of the local film culture and industry. In this way, these bursaries are quite literally investments in the future of film in T&T. We in the Film Programme have seen first hand how effective they are and are grateful for TTFC’s ongoing commitment to building the local industry from the ground up.”
A release from the TTFC said in the fiscal year 2012, the company sponsored 29 bursaries at UWI and UTT combined. Both UWI and UTT select bursary awardees based on their own criteria, the release added. The TTFC does not have a say in the selection but simply provides annual funding to each institution. At least ten students in the UTT Diploma in Animation and Digital Studies programme stand to benefit from the bursaries this year.
Tis year, UTT chose to give some bursaries on the basis of financial need and some for academic performance. The creator of the Best Student Film at UTT for the past year, for example, will receive a bursary award. Shane Young Sing won that award in 2012 for his animated short Boxer Briefs. “That was a good reward,” Young Sing said. “I put that towards more software, to invest in the animation industry.” His film also took the award for Best Caribbean Animation at last year’s Animae Caribe Festival, and since then Young Sing has been to Barbados and Suriname, leading Animae Caribe workshops for prospective animators. He indicated the TTFC bursary, while a relatively modest amount, made a difference to his career. “I couldn’t have been happier. It helped me get to where I want to be at a quicker moment.”