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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 Sri Lankan film industry. 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 of Chitra Kala Movietone. Sri Lankan films are usually made in Sinhala and Tamil, the dominant languages of the country.
Jacqueline Genevieve Fernandez is a Sri Lankan actress based in India. She has worked in Indian films, predominantly in Hindi, besides appearing in reality shows and music videos. Fernandez was born and 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.
Zainab Salbi is an Iraqi American women's rights activist, writer, television show host, and podcaster. She is the co-founder of Daughters for Earth, a fund and a movement of Daughters rising up worldwide with climate solutions to protect and restore Mother Earth. She is also the co-founder of Women for Women International, a non-profit organization that helps women affected by sexual violence and conflict. She hosted Through Her Eyes and #MeToo, Now What? television shows, about issues affecting women. From 2022 she hosted the Redefined podcast.
Malaka Dewapriya (Sinhala: මාලක දේවප්රිය, IPA:[maːləkədeːʋaprijə] is a Sri Lankan film maker, visual artist, Sinhala Radio Play writer, short film and video director.
Mathangi "Maya" Arulpragasam, known professionally as M.I.A., is a British rapper, record producer, and singer. Her music combines elements of alternative, dance, electronic, hip hop and world music with electronic 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 province has an area of 8,884 km2, making it the 3rd largest province by area, and a population of 1,061,315, making it the least populated province. Jaffna is the capital city of the province.
Chamani Roshini Seneviratne is a Sri Lankan-born cricketer who currently plays for the United Arab Emirates as a right-arm medium bowler and right-handed batter. She previously played internationally for Sri Lanka between 1997 and 2013, appearing in one Test match, 80 One Day Internationals and 32 Twenty20 Internationals.
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".
Abigail Edna Disney is an American documentary film producer, philanthropist, social activist, and member of the Disney family. She produced the 2008 documentary Pray the Devil Back to Hell. Disney and Kathleen Hughes are producers and directors of Outstanding Social Issue Documentary Emmy Award winning The Armor of Light (2015) and The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales.
Leena Manimekalai is an Indian filmmaker, poet and an actor. Her works include five published poetry anthologies and several 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.
Callum Macrae is a Scottish filmmaker, writer and journalist currently with Outsider Television, which he had co-founded with Alex Sutherland in 1993.
Luisa, Lady 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 (Sinhala:ආශා ඩි වොස් 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.
Rajee Samarasinghe is a Sri Lankan filmmaker and visual artist. His work explores a wide array of topics including the Sri Lankan Civil War, his family, and the deconstruction of documentary and narrative film.
