02/04/2021
Ethem Cetintas RIP.
Our good friend and video director of the Nevis Blues Festival died 31st March. It was sudden and unexpected. Ethem produced wonderful video memories of the festival so we thought it only right to share some memories of Ethem (Et, to his friends).
Et came to Nevis in 2015 at the invitation of festival producer Richard Pavitt. They first met at school in the sixties. As well as being an immensely experienced cameraman and film director, Et was a talented guitarist and sound engineer, so the ideal person to capture the festival in vision and sound. Working with staff at NTV (whom he called his ‘demon crew’) Et filmed around the island and at the festival. He returned in 2016; and while he was unable to attend the 2017 festival the demon crew did a great job of filming, which Et then edited and post-produced back in the UK. It was a labour of love. He had such passion for music and developed a great love for the island and the people he worked with in Nevis.
His early life as a news and documentary film cameraman was adventurous and colourful. It took him to many of the hotspots of the world including Iran (where he was imprisoned for several weeks) and Afghanistan, where he was one of the few western cameramen the Taliban allowed to travel with them and to film their warfare. His work was recognised by the British Academy of Film & Television Arts (BAFTA).
When - in his own words - he got "too old for that game” he turned his talents to producing TV commercials, his own documentaries and independent feature films. Et was also an insatiable engineer and inventor, creating one-of-a-kind loudspeakers for music production, his own video camera rigs, and he built exceptionally good electric guitars. If there was a problem, or something needed improving, he would find a solution.
Et was a glass-half-full kind of person, always thinking about his next project. He had many ideas for documentaries about the great injustices and political fallacies of the modern world.
He was deeply involved in recording the lives of people who in WWII had been involved in secret aircraft production - Secret Spitfires - and lately he was campaigning for changes in the administration of his home city, Salisbury. It is immensely sad that he leaves behind what he would term “unfinished business.”
RIP Ethem Cetintas. You will be missed by many, in many ways. Warm, generous, principled, thoughtful, creative and a wonderful friend to all those who had the pleasure and privilege of knowing him. He leaves a wife and two daughters to who we send our heartfelt condolences.
The highlights video of each year of the festival can be seen at https://www.nevisbluesfestival.com
Nevis Television
