This month, we’ll be screening GoHomeGota (2023) by Sulochana Peiris, which tells the story of Sri Lanka’s youth-led Aragalaya (Struggle) protests in 2022, in response to the 2022 economic crisis.
Length: 51 minutes
Synopsis
This documentary tells the story of the movement-building and mobilisation that led to Sri Lanka’s 2022 Aragalaya protests, featuring interviews with several activists who were part of the protest movement since the beginning of the occupation of Galle Face Green, a public space which became a key protest site in Colombo. These leaders also discuss how they define and are working towards “system change” a key demand of the Aragalaya in response to frustrations around corruption and misgovernance.
Director’s bio: Sulochana Peiris is a documentary maker, researcher, and writer currently based in Sri Lanka. She has over 20 years of experience making short videos and documentaries on women, peace, and security, conflict, war, peacebuilding, reconciliation, human rights and youth in Sri Lanka, and in other South Asian and Southeast Asian contexts. Her latest documentary on Sri Lanka’s 2022 protest movement premiered in Utrecht, the Netherlands during an academic conference organised by the University of Utrecht in June 2023. Since then she also screened it at the University of Innsbruck, Austria and at several universities across the UK and Europe.
Do you know any visual storytellers looking for a platform to showcase their work about Southasia? If so, we want to hear from you! We're looking for documentaries, new and old, short and feature-length, to showcase in our programme. If you wish to pitch your film to us, please email editorial@himalmag.com.
