Narrative

Guiana 1838: The Arrival


Guiana 1838 is a powerful period drama which tells the story of how the British Empire abolished slavery only to create a different form of slavery with Hindu indentured servants.


Rohit Jagessar came to American Montage with this certifiable indie film hit. Rohit's Guiana 1838, smashed the per-screen average for a weekend box office debut. It took in $70,910 over the opening weekend at the Crossbay Threater I in Queens, making it the highest weekend gross for an independent film at a single cinema in the history of the U.S.

After all the success Rohit Jagessar told IndieWire, the online film publication, "I'm overwhelmed, [the audience] laughed at all the [right] places, and cried at the [right] places they were supposed to, it's a great surprise."

However, despite the success of the film, Rohit Jagessar was not entirely satisfied. In the rush to complete the film certain aspects were unpolished and incomplete. For example, the film was too long, pacing too slow in parts, there was little or no sound effects, the music wasn't distinctive or evocative, and finally the mix was poor. Rohit also wanted to add incisive documentary sections to add historical context to the film.

After finding American Montage on the web, and reviewing AMI's body of work, Rohit wanted Eric Marciano to oversee all of these significant changes. In addition he asked American Montage to produce the feature length "Making of" documentary of the creation of this socially and historically significant film.

Over a six week period Eric re-edited and re-sound edited the film, cutting out 12 minutes and adding six new minutes. He brought in Erika Leiberman to score the new cut and Harris Skibell to re-mix the film. The result is a jewel, a two DVD package which soon will be a television special.

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