Del Crooks (left), film commissioner at Jamaica Trade and Invest, makes a point to Angella Patterson (right), chief executive officer of Creative Production and Training Centre, and Doug Halsal, chief executive officer of Advance Integrated Service, during the launch of Jamaica Digital Arts festival at the Hilton hotel, in New Kingston, last Friday. - Ian Allen/Staff Photographer

Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer

Ordinarily, film-makers, web designers, musicians, music producers, photographers and artists would hardly be expected to be found displaying their work at the same festival.

However, with creative minds finding common ground in digital technology, the first Jamaica Digital Arts Festival will bring them all together at the Hilton Kingston hotel, New Kingston, from July 20-22.

Entries for the festival close this Friday, June 15.

Training arm

"The CPTC for some time had a training arm. In about 2005, it was dissolved into the Media Training Institute (MTI), a tertiary level organisation to train persons in media. It is in seeking to cement MTI in the minds of the public for technology that the Digital Arts Festival came into being," head of the Creative Productions and Training Centre (CPTC), Angella Patterson, said.

Entries are invited in short video/film (up to 15 minutes); long video/film (15 minutes and over); web design, digital art, photography and music. They must be related to one of tourism/hospitality, entertainment/music, community development, agriculture/ agribusiness and education/training.

Each category will be divided into professionals and students/amateurs, with cash prizes going to winning entries. The intention is also to show them on television.

At the festival, the best of the work submitted will be put on display, but there will also be workshops and expert speakers from Jamaica and overseas.

"There is a huge push towards the creative and cultural industries as the next sort of economic saviour. Digital work will be one of the drivers for that thrust," Patterson said. The ultimate objective is to show those who "have been dabbling in this thing, why not look at it as a way of making a living?"

"Why not see it as a career? Earn a living from something you enjoy doing?" Patterson asked.

No cost for submission

There is no cost for submitting entries to the festival and there will be a minimal fee for the public to see the best of the submissions at the Hilton next month. "We want people to come. We want people to see what's possible," Patterson said.

Entry forms are available at the CPTC's Ripon Road, St. Andrew, offices, as well as Social Development Commission (SDC) offices and Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC) offices islandwide. They can also be downloaded at the festival's website, www.daf.org.jm. Completed forms, along with entries, are to be returned to the CPTC by Friday.

So far, Patterson says, "a lot of people have been calling, some work has been submitted already". There have been submissions in all the categories and the CPTC head says "that is very, very heartening".

The plan is to make the festival every two years. "We figure that people need time to do the work," Patterson said.