Colombo, Sri Lanka, Sep 4, 2007 / 08:48 am
An award-winning Sri Lankan filmmaker credits the Catholic Church’s media initiatives with having developed and improved the country’s film industry.
Prasanna Vithanage, who won this year’s SIGNIS Sri Lanka Gold Award for directing, said SIGNIS and its predecessor, the International Catholic Organization for Cinema and Audiovisuals (OCIC), served as the breeding ground for many current Sri Lankan filmmakers.
Vithanage told UCA News that, as a boy, he and his friends enjoyed watching and reviewing films at a mini-theater OCIC organized in Colombo. Those experiences provided the inspiration for many filmmakers in the industry today, he said.
"We do not have a film school in Sri Lanka even now," he pointed out. "We learned everything through watching films.” Four of Vithanage’s five films have won SIGNIS golden awards.