Barbados Film and Video Association focused on growth

Though the past year was extremely challenging, the Barbados Film and Video Association (BFVA) is focused on improving and growing as an organisation.

BFVA President, Kirk Dawson, told this to The Barbados Advocate as he spoke during a recent interview.

“For 2021, we are basically going to be looking at tightening up the Association and getting the membership back up and running and providing the necessary support for the industry. There are some major projects that I know are looking to come to Barbados in the near future, so hopefully through the Association we can see those projects happen and we can see our members getting some gainful employment.”

Dawson said the first half of last year was the most difficult for BFVA members. It was during the latter portion of the year that things were better, and he said this was owing to initiatives from the National Cultural Foundation (NCF). He also explained some members accessed funding from the COVID-19 Creatives Technical Assistance Grant or worked with creatives who accessed funding from there on the audiovisual component of their digital project.

“[The year] 2020 was an extremely difficult year for the Association and for the members of the Association on the whole, because obviously working within the film and video sector…there would have been no work happening because a lot of productions would have stopped…

“But the good thing is obviously in the latter half of the year with the initiatives from the NCF, some cultural practitioners and people from within the Association then saw some level of income coming in, although it might not have been a lot. This is coming out of the COVID Relief Grant. It may not have been a lot but it helped some people to get by.”

Dawson stated the BFVA waived its membership fees during 2020 as a measure to ease its members financially. The BFVA’s database comprises “over 100 members”, not all are presently active.

“It really wasn’t making sense to have people paying for membership who were not generating any form of income. So we thought it prudent to cancel our membership fees and that will remain that way until…We don’t have a set date yet as to when we will make membership monetary again.”