untapped documentary (7)

Untapped – Documentary screening

Untapped, a bamboo movement in Sri Lanka

A documentary focusing on bamboo as a building material and the future of the bamboo industry in Sri Lanka. The screening will be followed by a discussion moderated by Julien Bailly, the founder and director of Una Bambu.

The documentary recounts a 12-day bamboo workshop with one of the best bamboo carpenters in the world, Mr Jorg Stamm. Foreign participants and 10 local carpenters learnt how to select, process, prepare and build with the magnificent material that is bamboo.

A documentary by Nuwan Attanayake, sound by Sarani Perera, produced by Una Bambu.

untapped documentary (7)

🏡 Alliance Française de Colombo, 11, Barnes Place, Colombo 7
📅 Wednesday 9th August, 6pm – 7.30pm
🎟 Free entrance

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Conference – Archeology in Sri Lanka

We are glad to present to you the lecture on recent archaeological projects in Sri Lanka, in collaboration with France (CNRS), Germany (German Archaeological Institute) and the US (University of Berkeley). In a multidisciplinary perspective, joining archaeology, art history, anthropology of techniques and digital humanities, three projects will be highlighted:

  • Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara as protector of seafarers. Results of the Avalokiteśvara survey project in Sri Lanka
  • GIS-based heritage data management system for world heritage city of Anuradhapura
  • Giribawa, An Ancient Glass-Making site of the first millennium CE
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Speakers

Ariane de Saxcé is an archaeologist specialized on trade and cultural exchanges in the Indian Ocean. She received her PhD from the University of Paris-Sorbonne, after a pre-doctoral Fellowship at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles. Her thesis dealt with transfers and interactions between the Mediterranean, South India and Sri Lanka (3 rd c. BCE – 7 th c. CE). For her post-doctoral research at the École pratique des hautes études (Paris), she worked on religious and cultural contacts of Sri Lanka at the early medieval period. Now Research Associate for South and South-East Asia at the German Archaeological Institute (KAAK Bonn), she has started new collaborative projects for excavations in Sri Lanka.

Professor Osmund Bopearachchi is a Professor of Central and South Asian Art and Archaeology at the UC Berkeley, and Emeritus Director of Research at the C.N.R.S.-E.N.S. Paris. He holds B.A. from the University of Kelaniya (Sri Lanka), and B.A. honours, M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D. from the Paris 1 Sorbonne University, and a Higher Doctorate (Habilitation) from the Paris 4 Sorbonne University. He is a numismatist, art historian and archaeologist. He has received prestigious international awards for his publications. French Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres has awarded the most prestigious prizes to five of his works, including “George Perrot Medal” for From Bactria to Taprobane: Selected Works of Osmund Bopearachchi, vol. I. Central Asian and Indian Numismatics; vol. II. Art History and Maritime Trade, Manohar Publishers, New Delhi, 2015 and Ikuo Hiriyama Award for When West Met East: Gandhāran Art Revisted, Manohar, New Delhi in 2020.

Nuwan Abeywardane is a Professor attached to the Department of Archaeology and Heritage Management of the Rajarata University of Sri Lanka. In 2005 he was able to qualify himself by obtaining a first class honors degree for Bachelor of Arts in Archaeology from the University of Peradeniya. Meantime, he was awarded two scholarships for Academic Excellence and Greatest Competence at the General Convocation.  He completed his Master of Science in GIS and remote sensing at Post Graduate Institute of Science, University of Peradeniya, in 2009 with a GPA of 3.81.  In 2009 he joined the Government Department of Archaeology as a research assistant and contributed to several field explorations and excavations island wide. Nuwan joined the Department of Archaeology and Heritage Management at Rajarata University of Sri Lanka as a young Lecturer in 2011. He is a senior academic and a researcher now. He completed his Doctor of Science degree in Landscape Archaeology from the Freie University, Berlin, Germany, in 2019. He is an ICCROM alumnus and completed the Conservation of Built Heritage Course in 2014 at ICCROM, Rome, Italy. Further, he had his heritage and GIS education from Japan, Thailand, and India. He is a member of the Sri Lanka Council of Archaeologists.

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FSF – Celebrate! A photographic exhibition

The Embassy of France in Sri Lanka and the Maldives and the network of Alliances Françaises in Sri Lanka and the Maldives are proud to present Celebrate! a photographic exhibition at Alliance Française of Colombo, from Thursday 6th of July, as part of the French Spring Festival 2023.

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The theme of the contest Celebrate! invited participants to capture and cherish the extraordinary moments that punctuate our lives. The selected photographs pay homage to the successes and accomplishments, the bonds that unite us, and the encounters that enrich us. Through these captivating images, we celebrate the beauty that surrounds us, the steps we have taken, the victories of daily life, the age-old rituals and the smiles we share. This gallery of frozen moments is a true ode to celebration.

The ten best photographs, carefully chosen by an expert jury panel, will take center stage at the exhibition. The esteemed jury members includes His Excellency Jean-François Pactet, Ambassador of France to Sri Lanka and the Maldives ; together with Prof. (Dr) Indika Ferdinando, from University of the Visual and Performing Arts, Kisho Kumar, photographer and activist, Onella Perera, Development Assistant at Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Sri Lanka, and Menika van der Poorten, Cultural practitioner, producer, and curator.

In this exhibition, visitors will have the privilege of admiring the selected photographs, capturing the essence of celebration through the lens of these talented individuals.

We would like to extend our special thanks to our 4 main sponsors for this contest. Connaissance de Ceylan & Thema Collection, Geoffrey Bawa Trust and Artra Magazine are gifting the first three prizes, while Sri Lankan Airlines offer a notebook to each of the 10 participants.

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FSF – French Film Festival

The French Film Festival organized on the occasion of French Spring Festival 2023 will be held from the 6th of July to the 9th of July 2023 at the National Film Corporation (Tharangani Theatre, Bauddhaloka Mawatha, Colombo 7).

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SYNOPSIS

6th July – 6pm
En Corps / Rise, by Cedric Klapish
(2022, 1h58)

One of the flagship movies is the talented director Cédric Klapish’s new movie, released in March 2022, a heart-warming and inspiring story that tells us about resilience and healing.

Elise, 26, is a great ballet dancer. She is injured during a performance and learns that she will no longer be able to dance. From then on, her life is turned upside down, and Elise has to learn how to repair herself… Between Paris and Brittany, through encounters and experiences, disappointments and hopes, Elise gets closer to a contemporary dance company. This new way of dancing will give her a new lease of life.

7th July – 6pm
Rock’n Roll by Guillaume Canet
(2017, 2h03)

A hilarious, parodic comedy with Marion Cotillard and Guillaume Canet about the daily lives of two French cinema stars.

Guillaume Canet, 43, has everything he needs to be happy and fulfilled in his life. On a film set, a pretty 20-year-old actress stops him in his tracks, telling him that he’s not very “Rock”, that he’s never really been, and to finish him off, that he’s fallen down the “list” of actors we’d like to fuck… His family life with Marion, his son, his country house, his horses, all give him a cheesy and no longer really sexy image… Guillaume understands that it’s urgent to change everything. And he’s going to go far, very far, under the stunned and powerless gaze of those around him.

kirikou
8th July – 3pm
Kirikou et la sorcière / Kirikou and the Sorceress by Michel Ocelot (1998, 1h10)

One of the most famous French animated movie, about the tale of tiny Kirikou born in an African village in which Karaba the Sorceress has placed a terrible curse. A screening dedicated to young audience and families.

Tiny Kirikou is born in an African village where the witch Karaba, surrounded by her fearsome fetishes, has cast a terrible spell: the spring is dried up, villagers are held to ransom, men are kidnapped and mysteriously disappear. Kirikou, as soon as he leaves his mother’s womb, sets out to free the village from Karaba’s evil grip and discover the secret of her wickedness.

 
rouge
8th July – 6pm
Rouge / Red soil by Farid Bentoumi (2020, 1h26)

An ecological thriller based on real events, where we discover the story of the red mud scandal at the Gardanne chemical plant.

Nour has just been hired as a nurse at the chemical plant where her father, a union delegate and long-time linchpin of the company, works. While the plant is undergoing a health inspection, a journalist is investigating waste management. The two young women gradually discover that the plant, a pillar of the local economy, hides many secrets. Between lies about pollutant discharges, doctored medical records and hidden accidents, Nour will have to choose between keeping quiet and betraying her father to bring the truth to light.

pasquet
9th July – 3pm
16 levers de soleil / 16 sunrises
(2018, 1h58)

A documentary about the 6 months spent by the worldwide known French Astronaut Thomas Pesquet aboard the International Space Station.

Flying into space. This is the dream that Thomas Pesquet realized when he took off from the Baikonur base. 450 kilometers from Earth, during these six months when the world seems to be tipping into the unknown, a dialogue is woven between the astronaut and Saint Exupéry’s visionary work that he took with him to the space station.

dernier
9th July – 6pm
Délicieux / Delicious, by Eric Besnard
(2021, 1h53)

Discover the unusual story of a chef who – on a hunt for revenge – ends up opening France’s first restaurant!

At the dawn of the French Revolution, Pierre Manceron, a daring but proud cook, is sacked by his master, the Duc de Chamfort. When he meets an astonishing woman who wants to learn the culinary arts alongside him, he regains his self-confidence and is driven to emancipate himself from his domestic status and embark on his own revolution. Together, they invented a place for pleasure and sharing open to all: the first restaurant. An idea that will earn them customers… and enemies.