Courtesy - Sunday Island By Maya Bille
2,600 years ago the Buddha was enlightened, and the faith of Buddhism born. The positive idea of the way of living came to the Buddha - the middle path. He followed it to discover the noble eightfold path to enlightenment. Sri Lanka is a developing country where many business sectors are booming and an increasing part of the population is getting more money in their pockets. Most of the money is spent on consumption and materialist acquisition, but is materialism and greed for money consonant with the messages of the middle path?
Like many other religions Buddhism is built on a foundation of positive messages advocating that you should treat your neighbour, friend or family member with respect. That you should not steal, lie or kill. All the biggest religions have these messages in common, but several wars continue to be fought around the globe. Does this mean that people have gotten more aggressive and less religious? Or is it that the modern way of life is a burden too heavy to carry?
moreCo-ordinator Media of the International Sambuddhathwa Jayanthi Buddhist Film Festival, Kala Keerthi Edwin Ariyadasa told the Sunday Island that he finds people to be more aggressive, bad tempered and tense nowadays. He suggested that the threat of terror is one of the reasons for the tension leading to negative thinking and lack of humanity.
To make people forget about tension and materialism it was decided to mark the Buddha’s enlightenment 2,600 years ago by spreading his message via the film medium through the "Vesak 2011 – 3rd Annual Buddhist Film Festival" from the 18th-22nd of May.
"We thought that this message has to be taken to the global community through the medium of film. With that we initiated and implemented the Buddhist Film Festival," Ariyadasa said.
When he says "we" he is talking about the people behind the festival – the Light of Asia Foundation. The head of the festival is Navin Gooneratne - the Honorary Chairman of the Light of Asia Foundation.
Ariyadasa explained that motion picture is the best way to spread the positive messages of Buddhism because it is a universal language.
"It is the anniversary of the Buddha’s attainment of enlightenment. We have to pass the message of the compassionate Buddha to the world. How do we take this message? It has to be taken in the universal language," he said.
The people behind the festival decided to expand it to a larger scale than on the two previous occasions. It was conducted in 2009 for the first time with 140 local short films and 80 movies from abroad being screened. In 2010 the festival was conducted again, this time with President Mahinda Rajapaksa as the guest of honour presenting the awards. The two previous festivals paved the way for the big event this year with the president once again present to distribute the awards.
Foreigners will attend the event which is intended to be more cosmopolitan than before with Buddhist film celebrities from all over the world invited as guests of honour.
Ariyadasa said that the movies to be screened do not necessarily have to be about the Buddha and his life; they just need to contain a positive humanitarian message. The themes can be anything from the importance of family to ethical dramas.
This year’s categories of exhibition and competition are: documentary, feature, animation, short, mobile phone, children’s films and Buddhist music videos – the last two being new additions. So far 114 short and feature films from abroad have been viewed, Ariyadasa said.
The tagline of the festival is "Making Sri Lanka the Centre of Buddhist Cinema" - an ambitious goal to aim at. Nonetheless, a movie about the life of the Buddha is taking shape.
``It is now at the stage where castings are being conducted,’’ said Ariyadasa who was co-scriptwriter. The film to be titled "Siddhartha - THE BUDDHA," will be shot at different locations in Sri Lanka, Nepal and Thailand and released next year according to the web page of the movie.
The Light of Asia Foundation is behind this production as well with Navin Gooneratne as the producer.
If you need some positive vibrations you can participate in the festival in many ways. It is not only movie oriented screening the 25 winning films. A vegetarian food festival, an art exhibition, a drama and devotional songs event, Buddhist meditation seminars and a perehera will be part of the occasion.
The venues of the film festival and other events will be in an area between the BMICH grounds and the Viharamaha Devi Park.
