 | This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . (Learn how and when to remove these template messages)
|
Roshini Thinakaran is a National Geographic Emerging Explorer (named in 2007), TED Global Fellow, Journalist, Photographer, Researcher, Humanitarian, and Anthropologist (Cultural). [1] She also is a documentary filmmaker from Sri Lanka and the United States. [2] Her fields of study include: women, filmmakers, and war.
Thinakaran was born in Sri Lanka and moved to the United States at age seven. [2] Her family was fleeing the civil war going on at the time. [3] Thinakaran attended George Mason University [3] where she received a bachelor's degree in communication studies and a minor in journalism. In 2005, she lived in Beirut, Lebanon for about six months. [4]
Thinakaran's first short film was made about Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, president of Liberia. [3] The film was very short, but it "gained the attention of National Geographic." [3] She became part of the National Geographic Society's Emerging Explorers Program and received a $10,000 grant. [5]
Much of her work has focused on researching and profiling the lives of women living in post-conflict zones including Iraq, Liberia, Lebanon and Afghanistan. [6] She established Women at the Forefront in 2005, a multimedia project that examines war through the eyes of women. [6] Thinakaran spent 14 months in Iraqi neighborhoods making Women at the Forefront. [7] The goal of her project was to raise money and awareness for women in war zones and to support schools once the fighting ended. Thinakaran's coverage and support of women living in war zones was inspired by the time she lived in Iraq for 14 months, watching as women endured the conditions of war. In her project, the countries of Iraq, Sudan, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, and possibly Liberia, will be featured.
Her documentary, What Was Promised (2008), focused on the US-led initiative to integrate Iraqi women into the Iraqi Security Forces. [8] It premiered at the National Geographic All Roads Film Project. [5]
In an interview with Michelle Johnson, Thinakaran cited Elie Wiesel as a writer who has inspired her when she was younger. [4]
Thinakaran created a non-profit called Bridge the Gap Media, which advocates for education in regions that are in war zones. The non-profit supports women living in war zones to study abroad through scholarships that are secured by the non-profit. Also, it offers resources to elementary schools that have recently experienced, or come out of, war. [4]
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is a Liberian politician who served as the 24th President of Liberia from 2006 to 2018. Sirleaf was the first elected female head of state in Africa.
Sri Lankan cinema encompasses the films made in Sri Lanka. It is a fledgling industry that has struggled to find a footing since its inauguration in 1947 with Kadawunu Poronduwa produced by S. M. Nayagam o f Chitra Kala Movietone. Sri Lankan films are usually made in Sinhala and Tamil languages. Cinema of Sri Lanka is also referred to as Follywood.
Jacqueline Fernandez is a Bahraini–Sri Lankan actress, former model and the winner of the Miss Universe Sri Lanka pageant of 2006 who predominantly works in Hindi films. In 2009, she debuted with Aladin and since then has established a career in the Hindi film industry. Born into a multiracial Eurasian family of Sri Lankan, Canadian, and Malaysian descent, Fernandez was raised in Bahrain. After graduating in mass communication from the University of Sydney and working as a television reporter in Sri Lanka, she joined the modeling industry. She was crowned Miss Universe Sri Lanka in 2006, and represented her country at Miss Universe 2006.
Malaka Dewapriya (Sinhala: මාලක දේවප්රිය, IPA: [maːləkə deːʋaprijə] is a Sri Lankan film maker, visual artist, Sinhala Radio Play writer, short film and video director.
Mathangi "Maya" Arulpragasam, known by her stage name M.I.A., is a British rapper, singer, record producer and activist. M.I.A.'s songs contain evocative political and social commentary regarding immigration, warfare and identity in a globalised world. Her music combines elements of alternative, dance, electronic, hip hop and world music with eclectic instruments and samples.
Pray the Devil Back to Hell is a 2008 American documentary film directed by Gini Reticker and produced by Abigail Disney. The film premiered at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival, where it won the award for Best Documentary. The film had its theatrical release in New York City on November 7, 2008. It had cumulative gross worldwide of $90,066.
The Northern Province is one of the nine provinces of Sri Lanka, the first level administrative division of the country. The provinces have existed since the 19th century but did not have any legal status until 1987 when the 13th Amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka established provincial councils. Between 1988 and 2006 the province was temporarily merged with the Eastern Province to form the North Eastern Province. The capital of the province is Jaffna. The majority of the Sri Lankan Civil War was played out in this province.
Chamani Roshini Seneviratne is a Sri Lankan–Emirati cricketer. She scored Sri Lanka's only century in Women's Test cricket, with an unbeaten 105 against Pakistan in April 1998. She also did it on her debut. By scoring a test century on debut, she became only the eighth batswoman to score a test hundred on debut. After Chamani Seneviratne's century on debut, in Sri Lanka cricket's history the first-ever test centurions on debuts for both Sri Lanka men's national cricket team as well as Sri Lanka women's national cricket team came on debuts of Brendon Kuruppu and Seneviratne, respectively. An all-rounder, she has played one Test and 47 One Day Internationals for Sri Lanka. Chamani Seneviratne has scored the most runs on debut test for Sri Lanka and she is also the leading runscorer for Sri Lanka in test matches, despite Sri Lanka Women's managing to play their only test in 1998. Her 148 runs on debut was also the fifth-highest by a woman on test debut.
Tara Sutton is a Canadian journalist and filmmaker whose work in conflict zones has received many awards. She was one of the first international television correspondents to both produce and shoot their own reports and is a pioneer in the field of "video journalism".
Leymah Roberta Gbowee is a Liberian peace activist responsible for leading a women's nonviolent peace movement, Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace that helped bring an end to the Second Liberian Civil War in 2003. Her efforts to end the war, along with her collaborator Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, helped usher in a period of peace and enabled a free election in 2005 that Sirleaf won. She, along with Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Tawakkul Karman, were awarded the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize "for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work."
Abigail Edna Disney is an American documentary film producer, philanthropist, and social activist. She produced the documentary Pray the Devil Back to Hell, and is the executive producer, writer, and director of The Armor of Light, which won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Social Issue Documentary.
Leena Manimekalai is an Indian independent filmmaker, poet and an actor. Her works include five published poetry anthologies and a dozen films in genres, documentary, fiction and experimental poem films. She has been recognised with participation, mentions and best film awards in many international and national film festivals.
Danai Jekesai Gurira is an American actress and playwright. She is best known for her starring roles as Michonne on the AMC horror drama series The Walking Dead (2012–2020) and as Okoye in the Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero films Black Panther (2018), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), and Avengers: Endgame (2019).
No Fire Zone: In the Killing Fields of Sri Lanka is an investigative documentary about the final weeks of the Sri Lankan Civil War. The documentary covers the period from September 2008 until the end of the war in 2009 in which thousands of Tamil people were killed by shelling and extrajudicial executions by the Sri Lankan Army including Balachandran Prabhakaran, the 12-year-old son of the slain Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Chief Velupillai Prabhakaran. The Sri Lankan army has denied the allegations in the documentary. However, on 21 October 2015 the BBC reported that Maxwell Paranagama, a government-appointed Sri Lankan judge, says allegations the army committed war crimes during the long conflict with Tamil Tiger rebels are "credible". He went on to say there was evidence to suggest that footage obtained by the Channel 4 documentary No Fire Zone - showing prisoners naked, blindfolded, with arms tied and shot dead by soldiers - was genuine.
Lady Luisa Naysum Saravanamuttu was a Ceylonese politician. She was the second female member of State Council of Ceylon and the second elected female legislator in Sri Lanka.
Six Days: Three Activists, Three Wars, One Dream is a documentary film by director Nikolina Gillgren, which follows three human rights activists in Liberia, Iraq and Georgia over six days. It provides insight into the everyday struggle of making women's lives better, worldwide.
Asha de Vos is a Sri Lankan marine biologist, ocean educator and pioneer of blue whale research within the northern Indian Ocean. She is known for her Blue Whale Project. She is a Senior TED Fellow and was chosen for a BBC 100 Women award in 2018. She is a National Geographic 2016 Emerging Explorer Grantee.
Semini Dinusha Palihawadana née Iddamalgoda [Sinhala]), popularly as Semini Iddamalgoda, is an actress in Sri Lankan cinema, theater and television. Performing in both dramas to comedies, she is best known for the role Roshini in television sitcom Yes Boss, role Kumari in the film Sinhawa Atharin and as Suddi in film 28.
Siatta Scott Johnson, is a Liberian filmmaker and a broadcast journalist. She is best known as the director of critically acclaimed documentary Iron Ladies of Liberia. Apart from direction, she is also a reporter, producer. She also is a founding member of Omuahtee Africa Media.
Sexual violence against Tamils in Sri Lanka has occurred repeatedly during the island's long ethnic conflict. The first instances of rape of Tamil women by Sinhalese mobs were documented during the 1958 anti-Tamil pogrom. This continued in the 1960s with the deployment of the Sri Lankan Army in Jaffna, who were reported to have molested and occasionally raped Tamil women.
