The team
The project was conceptualised, created and curated by Jaffna-born, British filmmaker Kannan Arunasalam. Kannan uses documentary, photography and multimedia forms of storytelling. Originally from Jaffna, he grew up in London and returned to Sri Lanka in 2004. Kannan’s award winning films have been screened at international film festivals, appeared in The New Yorker, The Guardian, AOL Originals and broadcast on Al Jazeera English and the BBC.
Except where explicitly mentioned, all the photographs were taken by Kannan Arunasalam. There were also contributions from other Sri Lankan photographers including Alefiya Akbarally, Dominic Sansoni and Menika van der Poorten, as well as those who have spent time living in Sri Lanka like Daniel Ringold. Archive photographs are from Studio Times, Colombo. The website was designed by Cezar Neaga, a Romanian who used to live and work in Sri Lanka, and who now lives and works in London.
Must mention
The first series became a family affair, with my wife Sweta Velpillay and my father — whose hometowns are Jaffna, but are now part of the internal and international diaspora communities — contributing their time to help me with interviews and translations for I Am Jaffna, and motivating me to complete my first series that lasted over a year. For I Am Kandy, Menika van der Poorten, whose ancestors are from the Kandyan provinces, helped me find elders there and contributed some of the photography for Kandy and I Am Galle. Gayathri Lokuge and Ketharasarma Ledchumanasarma guided me in selecting elders in their hometowns of Galle and Jaffna respectively.
I’d like to thank my amazing team of researchers for series two. I Am Negombo couldn’t have been possible without Shashika Bandara, who’s roots in Negombo have been invaluable to connecting me with wonderful elders there. Thank you to Sujikanth Sotheeswaran and Kathirgamathamby Krishnaraj, for their help on I Am Batticaloa. And Ketha Ledchumanasarma for your continued help on translations.
In many ways, it was a journey for us all, discovering our roots through engaging with the wise women and men we met along the way.
The project was funded by the American Center in Colombo, and I am grateful to Glen Davis and Jeff Anderson who supported me throughout the first series, giving me the freedom to explore these regions and characters with full creative control.
I would like to thank those helping behind the scenes who directed us to stories and storytellers. There are too many to mention, but I would like to particularly thank Gurupuran Kumaradivel, Dr. Tissa Jayatilaka and Sabri Khalid, who directed us to characters from their hometowns of Jaffna, Kandy and Galle respectively.
And finally, but not least, to the characters who let us into their lives and who had the patience to allow us to collect their stories and pictures.
i find this initiative amazing. would like to link up however way i could. thanks for the efforts!
i love it! would love to help in anyway possible!
Love it… some people do amazing things like this once in a while. You are one of those people.
Excellent piece of work. I am so grateful. Thank you. (Sydney, Australia).
You give hope where there was none.
A different discovery, different perspective, and a different purpose. Superb! All the best!
Words won’t do justice to explain how I feel to know that Krishna (Kannan) is working to change the narratives – a way to transform the conflict – which is the need of the day in my country.
This is pretty cool >> The team: http://iam.lk/the-team/
Outstanding photography, brilliant concept, superb execution. Congratulations and keep it alive!
Excellent work, Kannan. Keep on keepin’ on…
Brilliant!
Your efforts are very inspiring and thought provoking. For me it’s a forum in which many divisive societal structures can be transcended. Greetings for a fruitful new year.
Amazing. I am quite literally mindblown by how well this has all been put together. Just a few minutes ago I was lamenting over the apparent death of the Sri Lankan blogosphere from how it used to be, but now it seems as though it’s only making room for projects such as this.
Perhaps this is the next step for anyone attempting to communicate, one doesn’t always have to be the one talking, you can simply be the medium. You guys are doing an amazing job, this has been the highlight of my “online experience” so far this year. Kudos!
Amazing idea, refreshing design and fabulous content. The photographs are nothing less than creative and eye catching. Congratulations to the creators of this project. Keep it up. I promise to spread the word.
Great initiative! Well done! Unless these things are published, the community will not be aware what each of these people have gone through in their lives!
If it wasn’t for this team these stories would not be told and would have been lost in the mists of time. Thank you for a great project and I look forward to more stories.
BUT, I hope and wish this beautiful project may not turn in to an ugly political project in the future…
i love this….
Thanks to Quintus de Silva in Melbourne, I’ve been made aware of this great site. Congratulations to the team and to the American Center for funding this innovative, truly inspiring site.
Thank you for engaging with the project.
Good effort indeed!
[…] I Am team’s dedication for bringing our humble community together is evident in their hard work, putting […]
You have captured most delicately what it is to be human and by default, Sri Lankan. Thank you for this rare look at a microcosm of our histories, in danger of being lost. The stories epitomise the beauty and honour of living, loving, working, repose and paths spiritual. Thank you.
Thank you so much for engaging with the project.
Creative
Thank you