Is YouTube the answer? | Panel
Friday, September 25, 2026 | 11:00 am
With traditional distribution hard to crack, YouTube can look like the open door for Caribbean filmmakers – the potential for instant reach, a global audience, and no gatekeepers. But is it the answer, or simply one piece of a much bigger puzzle? Digital technology columnist Mark Lyndersay sits down with Baidawi Assing, founder of the hugely successful channel EatAhFood, alongside broadcasters and streamers, to look honestly at where films actually find audiences and revenue. Beyond the hype of going viral, the panel makes the case for television broadcast, subscription streaming platforms, and theatrical release as enduring, viable routes to market, each with its own economics, audience, and value to a filmmaker’s career. The real question isn’t whether YouTube works, but how today’s filmmakers can build a smart, sustainable distribution mix that puts their work – and their livelihoods – on the strongest possible footing.
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Mark Lyndersay
Mark Lyndersay is a writer and photographer based in Trinidad and Tobago.
He is the editor of TechNewsTT.com, a news website covering technology developments in Trinidad and Tobago and writes BitDepth, a weekly column which has explored personal technology continuously over the last 30 years. He writes features and between 2001 and 2016, wrote 2,000 editorial leaders for Guardian Media Limited publications.
As a photographer, he has executed commercial assignments and annual report photography and personal projects over the last 48 years and his work has appeared in a range of publications, from Caribbean Beat to GuardianUK the New York Times. He has taught photographers for more than 35 years, beginning at John Donaldson Technical Institute in the 1980s. He now delivers a course on photography for UWI’s Film School and served as a resource lecturer for selected students of Trinity College, Hartford who participated in the Trinity in Trinidad programme.
His commercial and personal photography projects are archived at lyndersaydigital.com.