30 Years Ago: An unprecedented look at Black July
Photo by Natalie Soysa, for Groundviews-18 Jul, 2013
In August this year, Groundviews will launch a compelling collection of content to commemorate 30 years since Black July. The content will feature original podcasts, photography and writing on a dedicated website.
Building from the critically acclaimed Moving Images two years ago, Groundviews brought together leading documentary filmmakers, photographers, activists, theorists and designers, in Sri Lanka and abroad, to focus on just how deeply the anti-Tamil pogrom in 1983 has shaped our imagination, lives, society and polity.
The resulting content, featuring voices never captured before, marrying rich photography, video, audio and visual design with constitutional theory, story-telling and memorialising, has no historical precedent. Curated by Groundviews, the project is an attempt to use digital media and compelling design to remember the inconvenient, and in no small way, acts of daring, courage and resistance during and after Black July.
An exhibition will be held in Colombo in August to launch the project website (which will also serve as an archive for the narratives). It is hoped that over the coming year, what’s selected for display in the exhibition will travel around Sri Lanka, and hopefully, even beyond.
More details of the project, producers and exhibition will be posted on Groundviews in the coming weeks. The project will feature,
A photographer and researcher working together to capture the narrative around and from,
