Paths across the world

by Beverley Jansz

A 4-member Italian film crew is in Sri Lanka to produce the Sri Lanka segment of a documentary series on the Tribal people of the new millennium (a 6-part TV Series on Aborigines of the World).

This series is titled 'Paths Across the World'. It is part of the project for a series of documentaries by the well-known Italian documentary film-maker, Graziella La Rosa.

Researched, written and directed by Graziella La Rosa, the series is produced for RAI (Italian National Television Network Channel) by Benedetta De Cintio, on behalf of Meditteranea Productions, Italy.

The Sri Lankan segment is coordinated by Sri Lanka's pioneering foreign film facilitator, D. B. Warnasiri 'Warner', with the logistics handled by Anjalo Mendis, Managing Director, Bernard Tours and Travels Ltd. This project has received the approval of the National Film Corporation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Defence and the Sri Lanka Tourist Board.

'Paths across the World' is subdivided into two series of six documentaries each, and will be telecast in two versions, both on RAI 3, one afternoon version within the program named Geo & Geo (a very popular TV program in Italy), characterised by a soft descriptive style, the other in the second part of the evening, named Doc. 3 (the style is more journalistic) where there will be more room for those elements connected with the campaign and the humanitarian appeal.

The Italian crew had already filmed some tribal people such as Ayereo in Paraguay, Baka in Cameroon, Innu in Canada and Penan in Malaysia.

'Even in the 21st century, there are people living in forests, deserts, in inaccessible places but despite all that, they find them hospitable and often refuse the comforts of progress.

We name them tribal because they live in tribes and label them as primitive because they are similar to us thousands of centuries ago' MD, Bernard Tours and Travels Ltd.

Angelo Mendis said. They are called primitive people because they live according to remote customs and traditions, in harmony with nature and often have got no TV, no car. In most cases they are said to be disappearing, such as it happens with Pandas or the Siberian tiger.

This is why they have been a subject matter for scientists and anthroplogists to study and are being investigated, catalogued and are the topic of discussion in several round tables, Mendis said.

The film will be shot on a location in Dambana, Henanigala, Rathugala Veddha Communities, the Chieftains of the Communities speaking their minds without fear or favour.

The Italian Film crew was brought in by Bernard Tours and Travels Ltd., a very senior company in Sri Lanka's Travel Industry.