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FILM-PHILOSOPHY  2000

FILM-PHILOSOPHY 2000

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Subject:

Re: new member

From:

"waruna alahakoon" <[log in to unmask]>

Reply-To:

[log in to unmask]

Date:

Tue, 05 Sep 2000 16:50:25 LKT

Content-Type:

text/plain

Parts/Attachments:

Parts/Attachments

text/plain (367 lines)

Dear Venkiteshwaran,

Here I am sending the material that I promised you.
I hope you will respond it as soon as possible.

When you are sending a protest note, please send the copies of
it to me([log in to unmask])and to our web site
([log in to unmask]).

with best regards,

Waruna.




Emergency laws used against Pura Handa Kaluwara by Prasanna Vithanage
Sri Lankan government bans anti-war film
By Diane Sturgess
7 August 2000
Use this version to print

In a direct attack on democratic rights and freedom of artistic expression, 
Sri Lanka's Peoples Alliance government has banned Pura Handa Kaluwara 
(Death on a Full Moon Day), an internationally acclaimed film written and 
directed by Prasanna Vithanage. The film was due to be screened on July 28 
but under a directive from the Special Assignments Minister it has been 
indefinitely deferred. This is the first Sri Lankan film to be banned under 
the government's emergency laws, which were promulgated following its 
military debacle on the Jaffna peninsula at the end of April.

Pura Handa Kaluwara, which has won broad international recognition, 
including the Best Asian Actor award at last year's Singapore International 
Film Festival, is a powerful drama about the impact of the 17-year war 
against the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on a blind 
poverty-stricken Sinhala villager. The villager's son, who has been forced 
to join the army because there is no work in the area, is killed in military 
action. The father rejects state compensation and refuses to believe that 
his son is dead.

Sarath Amunugama, the PA's Special Assignment Minister, banned Vithanage's 
film on July 21. An earlier attempt to stop screenings of the film became 
invalid when the Supreme Court ruled that the media censorship laws 
proclaimed by the government on May 3 were unlawful. The government's 
Competent Authority on Media Censorship responded to the court decision by 
declaring that all media personnel had to apply “self-censorship” when 
publishing “war-related” matters or face prosecution.

While this ruling applied to the National Film Corporation (NFC), strong 
public demand for screenings of Vithanage's film forced the corporation to 
announce that the film would be released, with the first public showing on 
July 28.

On July 17, NFC chairman Thissa Abeysekara called a press conference under 
the pretext of announcing the release of the film. In fact, the NFC chairman 
made clear that the corporation was not prepared to defend the film if it 
faced any legal or illegal attack.

Abeysekara read a letter from the Competent Authority, stating that 
responsibility for any future screening of Pura Handa Kaluwara rested with 
the NFC and director Prasanna Vithanage. However, the NFC chairman said that 
final responsibility fell with the director.

Vithanage refused to be intimidated and insisted that the screening should 
go ahead as planned on July 28.

“I will not talk about the international awards and acclamation that the 
film has earned because those in responsible places are ignorant of its 
value,” he told the press conference. “I will only talk about the dangers 
posed to artists' freedom of self-expression. The morale of the armed forces 
is not my concern when screening this film.

“What I am doing is recreating life, which I see burdened with profound 
social questions in Sri Lanka, through my media. The characters and things 
created in my film still remain in the villages. Should I strangle their 
real yearnings reverberating inside me by not showing the film?

“Artists do not have to make films according to government demands: to 
create something for peace when the government says peace is needed and 
something for war when the government says war is needed.”

When journalists asked how the NFC and the government would respond to 
threats of attacks on the cinema from racialist thugs, Abeysekara 
equivocated: “Those who burn down billboards or engage in other obstructive 
activities will be dealt with by the law of the land. In my opinion the 
final decision is not in the hands of the Film Corporation, the courts or 
the artist, but with the general public. If this film provokes mental pain 
or unintentional anger from youth who are engaged in war, it has to be 
faced. If it is felt that humanity is disgraced, there won't be any escape 
for the film from the general public.”

Abeysekara claimed that Vithanage had practised “self-censorship” because he 
had not presented the film to the censor board for one and a half years 
after production. But in an interview with the World Socialist Web Site 
after the news conference, Vithanage rejected the NFC chairman's claims.

“What he said is wrong, I did not impose any self-censorship,” Vithanage 
said. “The film was made at the displeasure of the Defence Ministry and the 
armed forces, and so I was aware there was a definite danger the censor 
board could ban it. My aim was to obtain international focus and acclaim by 
presenting the film at international film festivals and use that to overcome 
the danger of it being banned for local public screenings.”

But four days after Vithanage told the press conference that he would not 
accept “self-censorship”, and a week before the official premiere, the 
Special Assignment Minister wrote to the NFC chairman ordering him, under 
NFC statues, to defer the screening indefinitely. Amunugama's letter 
declared: “I am sending this directive in view of the fact that the country 
is now on a war footing.”

The PA regime, and other sections of the Sri Lankan ruling elite, fear that 
Pura Handa Kaluwara, which directly challenges the racialist war against the 
Tamils and exposes the role of the state bureaucracy and the Buddhist clergy 
in the oppression of poor rural Sinhala villagers and youth, will impact on 
their war effort. Despite ongoing attempts by the government and extreme 
rightwing elements to arouse anti-Tamil racism, opposition to the war among 
the Sinhala masses in the South is growing. This has created a crisis in the 
armed forces with high desertion rates, poor morale and a sharp drop in 
military recruitment.

The decision to ban Pura Handa Kaluwara, a film that has already been 
screened in Bangladesh, Canada, France, Norway, Switzerland, Turkey, the 
United Arab Emirates, Britain, Australia and the US, is a serious attack on 
the democratic rights of all artists and foreshadows new assaults on the 
democratic rights of the Sri Lankan working class and oppressed masses. The 
World Socialist Web Site calls on all filmmakers, artists, students and 
workers, nationally and internationally, to oppose the government ban on 
Pura Handa Kaluwara and take a stand in defence of Prasanna Vithanage's 
right to present the film to Sri Lankan audiences. If the ban is not 
challenged and defeated the government will attempt to censor all other 
films and artistic work it considers detrimental to its rule.

Letters of protest should mailed or faxed to:

Sarath Amunugama,
Minister of Rehabilitation, Reconstruction and Development of North
No. 14, Fourth Floor
BOI Building
Sir Baron Jayathilake Mawatha
Colombo 01
Sri Lanka
Fax: 94-1-424109

Thissa Abeysekara
National Film Corporation of Sri Lanka
224 Bauddhaloka Mawatha
Colombo 07
Sri Lanka
Fax: 94-1-585526
E-mail: [log in to unmask]

Please send copies of all statements and letters of protest to the WSWS at 
[log in to unmask]

See Also:
How war has shattered the life of a Sri Lankan village
A review of Pura Handa Kaluwara (Death on a Full Moon Day), written and 
directed by Prasanna Vithanage
[29 February 2000]
Media censorship in Sri Lanka ruled invalid then reimposed
[18 July 2000]
In Defense of Artistic Freedom
[WSWS Full Coverage]



Top of page


Readers: The WSWS invites your comments. Please send e-mail.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Copyright 1998-2000
World Socialist Web Site
All rights reserved
,

Here I am sending the material that I promised you.
I hope you will respond it as soon as possible.

When you are sending a protest note, please send the copies of
it to me([log in to unmask])and to our web site
([log in to unmask]).

with best regards,

Waruna.




Emergency laws used against Pura Handa Kaluwara by Prasanna Vithanage
Sri Lankan government bans anti-war film
By Diane Sturgess
7 August 2000
Use this version to print

In a direct attack on democratic rights and freedom of artistic expression, 
Sri Lanka's Peoples Alliance government has banned Pura Handa Kaluwara 
(Death on a Full Moon Day), an internationally acclaimed film written and 
directed by Prasanna Vithanage. The film was due to be screened on July 28 
but under a directive from the Special Assignments Minister it has been 
indefinitely deferred. This is the first Sri Lankan film to be banned under 
the government's emergency laws, which were promulgated following its 
military debacle on the Jaffna peninsula at the end of April.

Pura Handa Kaluwara, which has won broad international recognition, 
including the Best Asian Actor award at last year's Singapore International 
Film Festival, is a powerful drama about the impact of the 17-year war 
against the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on a blind 
poverty-stricken Sinhala villager. The villager's son, who has been forced 
to join the army because there is no work in the area, is killed in military 
action. The father rejects state compensation and refuses to believe that 
his son is dead.

Sarath Amunugama, the PA's Special Assignment Minister, banned Vithanage's 
film on July 21. An earlier attempt to stop screenings of the film became 
invalid when the Supreme Court ruled that the media censorship laws 
proclaimed by the government on May 3 were unlawful. The government's 
Competent Authority on Media Censorship responded to the court decision by 
declaring that all media personnel had to apply “self-censorship” when 
publishing “war-related” matters or face prosecution.

While this ruling applied to the National Film Corporation (NFC), strong 
public demand for screenings of Vithanage's film forced the corporation to 
announce that the film would be released, with the first public showing on 
July 28.

On July 17, NFC chairman Thissa Abeysekara called a press conference under 
the pretext of announcing the release of the film. In fact, the NFC chairman 
made clear that the corporation was not prepared to defend the film if it 
faced any legal or illegal attack.

Abeysekara read a letter from the Competent Authority, stating that 
responsibility for any future screening of Pura Handa Kaluwara rested with 
the NFC and director Prasanna Vithanage. However, the NFC chairman said that 
final responsibility fell with the director.

Vithanage refused to be intimidated and insisted that the screening should 
go ahead as planned on July 28.

“I will not talk about the international awards and acclamation that the 
film has earned because those in responsible places are ignorant of its 
value,” he told the press conference. “I will only talk about the dangers 
posed to artists' freedom of self-expression. The morale of the armed forces 
is not my concern when screening this film.

“What I am doing is recreating life, which I see burdened with profound 
social questions in Sri Lanka, through my media. The characters and things 
created in my film still remain in the villages. Should I strangle their 
real yearnings reverberating inside me by not showing the film?

“Artists do not have to make films according to government demands: to 
create something for peace when the government says peace is needed and 
something for war when the government says war is needed.”

When journalists asked how the NFC and the government would respond to 
threats of attacks on the cinema from racialist thugs, Abeysekara 
equivocated: “Those who burn down billboards or engage in other obstructive 
activities will be dealt with by the law of the land. In my opinion the 
final decision is not in the hands of the Film Corporation, the courts or 
the artist, but with the general public. If this film provokes mental pain 
or unintentional anger from youth who are engaged in war, it has to be 
faced. If it is felt that humanity is disgraced, there won't be any escape 
for the film from the general public.”

Abeysekara claimed that Vithanage had practised “self-censorship” because he 
had not presented the film to the censor board for one and a half years 
after production. But in an interview with the World Socialist Web Site 
after the news conference, Vithanage rejected the NFC chairman's claims.

“What he said is wrong, I did not impose any self-censorship,” Vithanage 
said. “The film was made at the displeasure of the Defence Ministry and the 
armed forces, and so I was aware there was a definite danger the censor 
board could ban it. My aim was to obtain international focus and acclaim by 
presenting the film at international film festivals and use that to overcome 
the danger of it being banned for local public screenings.”

But four days after Vithanage told the press conference that he would not 
accept “self-censorship”, and a week before the official premiere, the 
Special Assignment Minister wrote to the NFC chairman ordering him, under 
NFC statues, to defer the screening indefinitely. Amunugama's letter 
declared: “I am sending this directive in view of the fact that the country 
is now on a war footing.”

The PA regime, and other sections of the Sri Lankan ruling elite, fear that 
Pura Handa Kaluwara, which directly challenges the racialist war against the 
Tamils and exposes the role of the state bureaucracy and the Buddhist clergy 
in the oppression of poor rural Sinhala villagers and youth, will impact on 
their war effort. Despite ongoing attempts by the government and extreme 
rightwing elements to arouse anti-Tamil racism, opposition to the war among 
the Sinhala masses in the South is growing. This has created a crisis in the 
armed forces with high desertion rates, poor morale and a sharp drop in 
military recruitment.

The decision to ban Pura Handa Kaluwara, a film that has already been 
screened in Bangladesh, Canada, France, Norway, Switzerland, Turkey, the 
United Arab Emirates, Britain, Australia and the US, is a serious attack on 
the democratic rights of all artists and foreshadows new assaults on the 
democratic rights of the Sri Lankan working class and oppressed masses. The 
World Socialist Web Site calls on all filmmakers, artists, students and 
workers, nationally and internationally, to oppose the government ban on 
Pura Handa Kaluwara and take a stand in defence of Prasanna Vithanage's 
right to present the film to Sri Lankan audiences. If the ban is not 
challenged and defeated the government will attempt to censor all other 
films and artistic work it considers detrimental to its rule.

Letters of protest should mailed or faxed to:

Sarath Amunugama,
Minister of Rehabilitation, Reconstruction and Development of North
No. 14, Fourth Floor
BOI Building
Sir Baron Jayathilake Mawatha
Colombo 01
Sri Lanka
Fax: 94-1-424109

Thissa Abeysekara
National Film Corporation of Sri Lanka
224 Bauddhaloka Mawatha
Colombo 07
Sri Lanka
Fax: 94-1-585526
E-mail: [log in to unmask]

Please send copies of all statements and letters of protest to the WSWS at 
[log in to unmask]

See Also:
How war has shattered the life of a Sri Lankan village
A review of Pura Handa Kaluwara (Death on a Full Moon Day), written and 
directed by Prasanna Vithanage
[29 February 2000]
Media censorship in Sri Lanka ruled invalid then reimposed
[18 July 2000]
In Defense of Artistic Freedom
[WSWS Full Coverage]



Top of page


Readers: The WSWS invites your comments. Please send e-mail.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Copyright 1998-2000
World Socialist Web Site
All rights reserved

_________________________________________________________________________
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