LA-based photographer and artist Menyelek Marin Coleman is partnering with the UEF to host a 1-month-long film camp for Belize City youths.

BELIZE CITY, Mon. June 4, 2022 The Library of African and Indigenous Studies is hosting a one-month-long film summer camp for youths of the community geared at empowering these young ones, ages ranging from 8-12 years old, by helping them acquire skills in film photography. Menyelek Marin Coleman, a professional LA-based photographer, has been immersed in the art form since he was 12 years old. The now 30-year- old told us that his camera has taken him all over the world, and he would like to share this skillset with young people in his roots country of Belize, in hopes that it would create a spark and open doors for these youth as well.

“Places that I haven’t been able to get to by myself, my camera has been able to get me to those places, and one of the biggest things I think I’ve learned over the last decade is that there are so many people outside, people that look like me that tell my story, so my goal is to create more photographers,” Menyelek shared.

The summer camp, warmly titled the “Breddah Cliff Augustine Youth Film Photography Summer

Camp” is the first of what is planned to be a 10-year initiative, to track the progress of these young filmmakers, and help them build on their skill set each year. This initiative is in honor of one of UBAD’s original members, Cliff Augustine, who recently transitioned, and was made possible with kind donations from his family. YaYa Marin Coleman, chairperson of UEF, said that the family hopes to continue supporting the initiative.

“So they donated a small yet critical seed money for us to have the camp this year, and it is a hope as a family that they will continue to make that donation, and they have also advocated for additional funding. This year is unlike any other; besides it being a film photography camp, mi only belly pain di lead the camp,” Sista YaYa said proudly.

Yes, if the name of the photographer seems familiar, it is because Menyelek is YaYa’s son. She said that it was her first time seeing him engaged in teaching a class, and what is even more meaningful to her is that the professional US-based photographer took it upon himself to take up leading the summer camp.

“The intention is to continue have this camp and weh different, unlike a lot of other camps, and these children are ages 8 to 12 years old, they come from the St. Martin’s community, Mayflower community, Yabra community and offa Faber Road. These are African children. We want to keep this came cohort, maybe for the next 10 years, because we want to track them. The youngest oneis8,sobythetimeheis18,we want to be able to say, dis da how we see dis young man develop. It’s so important. We tend to get a new batch of children, but we can’t say weh kinda impact we really had,” she remarked. She further stated that one of the volunteers at the summer camp has been coming to the library since she was 12 years old, and now her daughter is currently a participant in the summer camp.

Menyelek said that the children will be learning film photography, and he noted that this method of capturing images, while to a great extent replaced

by digital photography—is making a comeback, and in a way will instill a sense of discipline in the art form that has been lost in this digital age.

“What they are actually learning this summer is film photography. I am a primary pusher for film photography, because it forces you to stay in the moment, and you have to wait; you will have a week and a half to get your photos back like it used to be in the 90’s when I came up. But now with digital photographers, you can take 500 pictures in a day and you are trying to sort through 500 pictures as opposed to giving them a guideline of, you get one shot, once you take it, move on to the next one. If you didn’t get it, then you know next time you might,” he said.

He said he believes that we need more in-country photographers, taking photos and marketing them internationally, as opposed to foreigners taking photos and leaving with them.

“I didn’t know until I saw it, so my goal is to show the children that there is another way, other ways to make money, and other ways to be content creators … I feel like people come here to shoot here so much, and they leave, but why aren’t we shooting photos of our country that we live in and sending them back with it?” Menyelek said.