How did the JVP insurrection in late 80s impact current Sri Lankan society?

Well this is just a thought that came up. ; the second JVP insurrection in the late 80s claimed more than 60,000 lives most of whom were in thier youths. The bloody carnage claimed policitians, undergraduates, artists, journalists and activists from all walks of lives. Many of those who were killed would have been in thier early/mid 40s if they were alive today. So how has this vaccume impacted the current Sri Lankan society?

Will we be more more conservative or open minded about various issues? For example when taking the entertainment industry and cinema i feel that the 70s society was less conservative compared to our current society? And we seemed to have lost something in the 80s and mid 90s But it can be due to various reasons. And also regarding may other socio-political issues will our thinking be different? and i feel that there is some gap tha needs to be filled by the current genration...

Kolamba Sanniya ( 1976) Comedy/Sinhala

The Police Torture Epidemic in Sri Lanka - A Must Watch Documentary

Came across this amazing 20 minute documentary produced for Aisan Human Rights Commission, which i think every Sri Lankan regardless of their own opinion about human rights should have a look at. The documentary is deeply disturbing and takes a very insightful look at the "torture epidemic" that has gripped the Sri Lankan Police system.

Mr.Basil Fernando of Aisan Human Rights Commission rightly puts it, this is not something the international community will understand properly, and the change should come within from our society itself. Community awareness and strong advocacy against police torture is needed. When you look at the video you will notice several torture victims who have gone through much trauma due to these activities, and today it may be them but tomorrow it can very well be you or one of your loved ones? Have a look share your thoughts and spread the word.

Link: http://www.humanrights.asia/resources/videos/AHRC-VID-002-2012

Who is killing Sri Lanka's Blue Whales?

 It's bad enough these beautiful creatures are speared for freaking sushi!
Please watch and SHARE!

Idea Pettiya E02 - Mithila Somasiri from Lakdasun.org

In this episode of Idea Pettiya we were able to have a brief chat with Mithila Somasiri who is one of the major contributors and founding memebers of Sri Lankan nature and travel site Lakdasun.org

The website is a thriving virtual community of people who share similar interests in travel and exploring Sri Lankan nature and wildlife. The website has now become a great destination for users to obtain free information about places to explore, get advise and share their own travel experiences. The website contains highly detailed trip reports, information about attractions and amazing trekking routes in the heart of Sri Lanka. Their ever active forum has become a  great place to seek advise and share information.

We spoke to Mithila about his inspiration behind the website and his thoughts about conservation of Sri Lankan wildlife.

You could visit Lakdasun for more information at :http://www.lakdasun.org/

Colombo International Theater Festival 2012

Colombo International Theater Festival will be held from 26th March - 2nd April 2012 at the British School Auditorium. While the main performances will be held at British College Auditorium there will be a series of workshops and lecturers at Goethe Institute in Gregory's Road.

The festival will host a number of International Theater productions from countries such as Australia,Germany, Indonesia, Iran, Pakistan, India etc. We had a little chat with the festival director M.Safeer who with is Inter Act Art Foundation is putting in an amazing effort to make this event a success. M.Safeer has been in the Sri Lankan Theater industry for over 20 years with much experience and has pioneered in this with a hope of creating a turning point in the Sri Lankan Theater industry.



We are in the process of doing a few more interviews and documenting some of the efforts that are going into making this event a success, anyways below we have shared the performance schedule and you could gain more information about ticket reservations from their facebook page.


Colombo International Theater Festival  - Performance Schedule

26th March	Changeable Cohesion - Germany             Choreographer – Gerda Konig Concept - Gustavo Fijalkow/ Gerda Konig
27th  March	The Old Man and The Sea - Iran  Director - Zahrasadat Aziminia (Iran’s Sayeh Theater Group)	Passengers – Sri Lanka  Director - Ronika Chamali / S.Leelawathi (Janakaraliya – Theater of people)
28th March	Sitabo Lalang Lipa – Indonesia Director - Muh.Saeful (UKM Seni dan Budaya Talas)
29th  March	Chutti (Story-telling theater) - Delhi       Director - Dr.Ashish Ghosh (Anant Theater Group)
30th  March	Talk is Small (a play with scrabble) -Australia      Director - Brendon O’Cannel (Big One Little One)	Elfi - Sri Lanka    Director - S.Dayalan (Inter Act Art Black Box Theater)
31st March	Akhiyan Walio (People with eyes) - Pakistan      Director - Aamir Nawaz (Maas Foundation - Pakistan)
01st April	Dangalnama – Pune, India Director - Pro. Vidyanidhee Vanarase (Flame School of performing arts)
02nd April	Caged - Sri Lanka              Director - M.Safeer (Inter Act Art Black Box Theater)

The Sound of Samba

I thought this video was pretty rad. It encompasses footage captured during the Brazilian Carnaval of 2011 using the tilt-shift feature which makes real people and Rio in general seem like miniature dinky toys. By Jarbas Agnelli and Keith Loutit.

Documenting Sri Lankan Metal Scene through a Camcoder

Its been sometime since Drg and I did our first feature documentary  with four Sri Lankan metal bands called Arise. When we decided that we wanted to do this documentary we hardly had any material to work with, even though the Sri Lankan metal scene has been alive and kicking (at least in a very smaller scale) for so many years there was hardly any live footage to be found. In fact for certain bands even though they had been playing for more than five years they only had a few band pics and some live photographs to share with us.

This was indeed a tragedy, but of course when looking at the number of people who were coming to local gigs, supporting and encouraging the metal movement this was hardly a surprise. So in order to create the documentary apart from band interviews we traveled between Colombo and Kandy recording a number of gigs within a span of around one year. The footage we got were of very low quality, gigs were recorded off a Panasonic DV cam which was very bad in low light conditions and did not have a lasting battery. However once I was able to afford a decent camera I started recording off more gigs and band performances. Not to mention that these also have the shaky camera movements and some times bad low lights, but still within the span of last 1 1/2 years we have been able to slowly document most of the bands in the Sri Lankan metal scene on video.

As most would agreed the best feeling of a metal track would be to listen to it live. As of late with help of several friends we have started to use dual cameras for gig recording. This is no way an easy task, since we are not using any professional cameras, additional equipment or live editing. The hardest part comes at the editing sessions where footage from the two cameras needs to be synchronized and edited. Also the audio tracks on most of these gigs are not professionally recorded so we are ended up with the audio feed picked up by the camera itself. However once an edit is completed and when you go through the footage several times, the satisfaction you get is unmatched.

Of course we got a long way to go in terms of videoing gigs professionally though this can be taken as the first few steps in that direction. And kudos to everyone who are attending gigs and making it possible for bands to perform and supporting in any way they can.

This video was taken from behind the stage, its shaky and not of the best quality at all, but still love this. Capturing that performance and the crowds reaction was just epic!

Our latest dual camera experiment featuring WLG, an upcomming metalcore act from Kurunagala. 

Well you could find more videos of lesser and better quality than these at our youtube channel along with live performances of a number of well known local metal bands, check them all out at http://www.youtube.com/mathawaada