Event overview
Come and see award-winning director Visakesa Chandrasekaram's latest work & hear about its making from two of the people involved: Prof. Neloufer de Mel & Ms Ruhanie Perera.
From 1983-2009, a civil war was waged in Sri Lanka over the formation of a separate state of Tamil Eelam. Fought in the predominantly Tamil speaking areas of the north and east of the island, it left death, displacement, extra judicial killings, disappearances, sexual violence and trauma in its wake. Women were severely affected by the war. While some remained silent in the face of immense grief, shame, or fear, others chose to share their stories behind closed doors, or join protest movements seeking justice.
This film traces a two year project in which a team of academic researchers, theatre and film practitioners embarked on a journey with a group of war affected women and women theatre artists based in the East of Sri Lanka. Using image and playback theatre, memory mapping, journals, movement and film, the group worked at how best to re-tell the women’s stories.
The women share their stories, at times contemplative and elegiac, at other times invoking the vengeance of the Goddess Kannagi. We learn that these extraordinary women have survived immense trauma yet also risen out of their desperation to re-work their relationships with family and community. But their journey never follows a straight line.
Director:
Visakesa Chandrasekaram is a lawyer, activist and film maker. He has made three award-winning feature length films: 'Sayapeti Kusuma' (Frangipani) , 'Paangshu' (Earth) and 'Munnel' (Sand). He has a doctorate from the Australian National University and currently works as a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Law, University of Colombo.
Speakers:
Neloufer de Mel was former Chair Professor of English at the Dept. of English, University of Colombo, a Co-Director of the Gender, Justice and Security Research Hub, and lead researcher on the applied theatre project on which Journey is based. She has written extensively on gender, nationalism and militarization in Sri Lanka, and on postcolonial literature and performance studies.
Ruhanie Perera is a theatre performer and lecturer at the Dept. of English, University of Colombo. She is a founding member of the Floating Space Theatre Company. “Inscribing Her” (2013) and “Somewhere Between Truth and its Telling” (2012) are two of her solo performances that reflect her preoccupation with the body, embodiment, and the lived experience of women.
Dates & times
| Date | Time | Add to calendar |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Jul 2024 | 5:00pm - 7:00pm |
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