The potential for Papua New Guinean documentary-making talent reaching a global audience remains a high possibility. These were the sentiments expressed by EU Ambassador to PNG, Ioannis Giogkarakis-Argyropolous, at the launch of the ‘EU-PNG 40 Years of Partnership’ documentary.
Alongside the Ambassador, director and documentary producer, Marco Venditti and Media Niugini Limited CEO, Sheena Hughes were also present.
Europe remains a potential market for film-makers showing what Papua New Guinea has to offer. According to Documentary-film maker, Marco Venditti, world class productions using home grown talent is a largely under-utilised market that PNG has the potential to hone.
He made these remarks at the launch of a documentary that he has directed and produced under EMTEK Commercials – a subsidiary of Media Niugini Limited, in Partnership with the European Union.
Venditti, who has travelled extensively throughout both Papua New Guinea and the world has said he sees the remarkable and unique stories that can be told from PNG and feels that partnerships with organisations such as the European Union offer these.
“…but it’s a great opportunity nowadays to actually produce something big, in this country long enough to have the possibility to really dig into the story and to really find the interesting stuff to tell.”
On hand and expressing delight, was European Union Ambassador to Papua New Guinea Ioannis Giogkarakis-Argyropolous.
Europe’s influence on Papua New Guinean has had a profound effect on the nations’ contemporary culture, with Giogkarakis-Argyropolous explaining the impact it has had in terms of lingua-franca-TokPisin.
“Some of the words that are spoken in tok pisin are actually based on European words, so the influence is definitely there, but also something that can be shared despite the large distance between PNG and Europe.”
Venditti is also happy to acknowledge the influence PNG could have on the broader world. MNL CEO Sheena Hughes, was also delighted at the potential that documentaries as such could shape the future of media in PNG.
“It’s history that we can document, I mean of course we can have stuff written down on paper but visually seeing something is proof that it actually happened.”
The documentary EU-PNG , 40 Years of Partnership is slated to premiere on the 26th of this month in a limited screening and covers the different projects that the European Union has covered in different parts of the country.
