I am a Trinidadian currently residing in New York. Over the past 20 years, as an avid fan of our unique cultural heritage, I have been travelling home during the Carnival season. In particular, over the past two Carnival seasons, 2010 and 2011, I have purchased the Dimanche Gras DVD boxed sets, produced by Advanced Dynamics Home Entertainment.These DVDs are highly regarded as collectors' items for both visitors and residents alike, who wish to have a genuine record of the shows.
I regret, however, I must express my profound dissatisfaction with the Dimanche Gras DVD productions for this year. I have had the distinct pleasure of attending numerous live Dimanche Gras shows and I am acutely aware of the standard of excellence displayed during "live" performances by the artistes.Anxious to relive the experience on my return to New York, I hurriedly tried to view the DVDs purchased of this year's Dimanche Gras show, but was shocked to discover that, while each performer is required to sing three to four verses of their compositions, the DVDs have them singing two verses, thus rendering their performances woefully incomplete.
The fact is that the DVDs are being sold under the pretext that they are a complete recording of the entire performances. This may bring short-term gains to the pro- ducers, but this is counter-productive in that they do not do justice to the talents of the artistes and must leave a bad impression with tourists when they eventually discover that they did not get the collectors' items they were led to believe they were purchasing, for the princely sum, incidentally, of US$54.
Moreover, the quality of the DVD production is rather poor. Not only are the performances incomplete, but they are somewhat hackneyed, devoid of seamless "lead-ins" from one performer to another. A performer is cut short during their presentation and another performer simply begins their material.This type of product serves to portray our country's potential in a bad light and undermines the national effort to promote our Carnival celebrations internationally as an attraction to tourists.I would urge official intervention to ensure that in future purchasers of the DVDs get in fact what they are made to believe they are purchasing.
Hector Sebro
New York