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| Sunday, 7 March 2004 |
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Anoma Rajakarunna: Talking about what's taboo by Kaminie Jayanthi Liyanage Would it be a fitting tribute to Anoma Rajakaruna if we confer on her the title, "Women's Artiste? "
For as far back as she can remember, ever since she made her entry into film making at a very early age, she had critically questioned, stirred debates and weaved poetry about women in almost all her creative expressions of photography, writing, documentary film and tele-drama. In fact, she has had the habit of surfacing like the proverbial (though "rabidly volatile") cork on each International Women's Day, focusing on some searing unresolved issue. On this year's Women's Day Anoma will be back with her newest tele-drama "Bodimak Saha Pasdenek" (A boarding and five people) spotlighting one of the most common social problems of Sri Lanka - the illegal abortion. Funded by UNFPA and produced by Sri Lanka Women's Bureau, the tele-drama is scheduled to be shown on Sri Lanka Rupavahini at 10 p.m. on March 9. "When 1977 opened up the economy, women who lived protected and sheltered lives until then, suddenly had their life patterns changing dramatically. The economy we knew as school kids to depend on tea, rubber and coconut, was now dependent on women, mainly, the migrant women worker, who had to leave her native home and experiment in her new social 'immigrant' environment, while absorbing all the new images enticing her from the television and the internet," remarked Anoma, dissecting the footwork in "Bodimak saha Pasdenek." Prevalent
How this ingenious exploration teetered on the borders of catastrophy, can be seen in the official statistics of 1,000 illegal abortions a day. "That figure was taken from a media campaign I did for Women's NGO Forum, four years ago. The figure could now be in the region of 1,500 a day," ventures Anoma. "Contrary to the popular belief that illegal abortion is a phenomenon of the unmarried woman, medical research shows that it is really more prevalent among married couples with more than two children." The 25-minute tele-drama is another of Anoma's communication experiments, trying the concept of "entertainment plus education". Rather than the true documentary, such entertaining social communications will command a better rapport with the tele-drama addicted Sri Lankan audiences says Anoma. In "Bodimak Saha Pasdenek", five boarded women, thrown together with their childless but happily married landlady (Grace Ariyawimal), go through the motions of tackling the reproductive issues each one is confronted with. A bank worker (Kaushalya Fernando) whose husband and two children are in the village, gets pregnant. A university student (Ramani Damayanthi) has a boy friend but stakes everything on exams as the main focus of her life. A new generation city girl (Ama Wijesekera) does not believe that a love affair should end in marriage. Parents of sheltered teacher (Dilini Wathsala) has found her a suitor, but she is scared of marriage and is too shy to inquire about "marriage facts". Somewhere along the story is the death of the "keera seller" (vegetable vendor) of the boarding, as the result of an illegal abortion. "In the tele-drama, I am merely pointing out the crucial issues of sexual and reproductive rights confronting Sri Lankan women and I want women's groups and educationists to take it up from there," says Anoma. "The situation here is such that even though the Family Planning Association has been working for so long and though the reported incidence of rape and sexual harassment is high, how many women know the existence of morning-after pills? One reason for this ignorance is the false social attitudes." Displaced Drawing a parallel from her own career, Anoma points out that her initial film productions depicting social issues such as displaced women, commercial sex workers and middle class marriage, were banned because they were deemed to be controversial. "I had to fight again and again, to have them shown. There again, you have the social attitudes." When the Women's Bureau had a discussion with local artistes and invited scripts for fitting creations for the International Women's Day 2004, Anoma had been the only woman artiste among them. Among the issues identified by the Bureau as warranting creative discussion, were menopause and sexual education for teenagers. Anoma won the BUNKA Award for Special Achievement in Photography from Japan-Sri Lanka Friendship Cultural Foundation in 2002. She also won the Award for Beauty and Humanism at Green Vision International Film Festival 1998 in Russia for her documentary "Touching the Untouchable." A Special Jury Award was given to her by UNDA Sri Lanka in 1991 for her contribution to the television industry, spanning over 100 documentaries and television programmes. OCIC awarded her Amma Kenek the Best tele-drama award in 1998. Her, 'Senehasaka Kathavak' won the first place at OCIC Sri Lanka's celebrations of its 10th anniversary. "I started as a video maker but now I call myself a documentary maker," Anoma says, and augments her documentary making by running her own production company. For the past elevent months, she has been busy making a documentary film on women beyond the borders of Vanni. |
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