September 6, 2006

“Missing:  Sri Lanka’s Silent Tsunami” To Show At Amnesty International Film Festival

VANCOUVER, BC – Mars Entertainment is pleased to announce that Aaron Goodman’s moving documentary “MISSING: SRI LANKA’S SILENT TSUNAMI”, will premiere at Vancouver’s Amnesty International Film Festival this November.

For more than 20 years, a group known as the Tamil Tigers have been fighting for an independent homeland in northeastern Sri Lanka. The civil war has claimed more than 65,000 lives. During the conflict, the Sri Lankan government passed anti-terror laws that gave armed forces the power to arrest anyone suspected of supporting the Tigers. Thousands were arrested and killed, but with few bodies ever recovered, countless families remain convinced that their loved ones are still alive.

Journalist and documentary director Aaron Goodman decided to focus on lasting impact of the ‘disappearances.’ He says when he first arrived in Sri Lanka in 2004, he was shocked by the scale of the abuses, and that little is being done to provide justice to the victims and their families. “Many people, including several ‘experts’, told me the ‘disappearances’ have been forgotten,” says Goodman. “But I wasn’t convinced. I wanted to make a film about survivors who are still searching, and relying on their faith as a last resort to find answers.”

MISSING focuses on a horrendous event that took place 15 years ago. Security forces arrested 158 Tamil men at the Eastern University, claiming they were supporting Tamil Tiger rebels. None of those who were arrested have ever been seen again, yet their families have not given up hope of being reunited with their kin. The film chronicles the spiritual odysseys of Mr. Rasanayagam and Mrs. Thamavani, whose son and husband were among those ‘disappeared’ from the university campus. Their journeys are courageous and inspiring – seeking out oracles, or mediums, for otherworldly advice, and walking across fire at Hindu temples. The film also explores a rare coming-together of women who have been divided as enemies during the war.

A 2002 ceasefire halted the ‘disappearances’ and conflict in Sri Lanka. Yet escalating violence in recent months, and dozens of new ‘disappearances’, have increased the prospects of war once again.

MISSING will have it’s Canadian premiere at the Amnesty International Film Festival. Screening dates will be announced shortly. MISSING will also broadcast on CBC New Sunday this fall.

MISSING was produced by Mars Entertainment with the assistance of CBC, The National Film Board, BC Arts Council and the International Development Research Council.