Rajee Samarasinghe
BornJanuary 12, 1988
Colombo
NationalitySri Lankan
EducationUniversity of California San Diego
California Institute of the Arts
OccupationFilmmaker
Websiterajeesamarasinghe.com

Rajee Samarasinghe (born January 12, 1988) is a Sri Lankan filmmaker and visual artist.[1][2][3] His work explores a wide array of topics including the Sri Lankan Civil War, his family, and the deconstruction of documentary and narrative film.[2][3]

Early life and education

Samarasinghe was born in Colombo, Sri Lanka, in 1988,[1][4] during the Sri Lankan Civil War. Initially interested in illustration, his focus later shifted to film.[2] He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Visual Arts (Media) from the University of California San Diego and a Master of Fine Arts in Film and Video from the California Institute of the Arts.[2][4]

Career

Samarasinghe's 2016 short film, If I Were Any Further Away I’d Be Closer to Home, premiered in the international competition at the 62nd International Short Film Festival Oberhausen.[5] Genevieve Yue, writing for Film Comment, stated that "(Lav) Diaz’s visual lyricism was only topped by Rajee Samarasinghe’s If I Were Any Further Away I’d Be Closer to Home, a silent, black-and-white portrait of a Sri Lankan noodle-maker and his family. Shot in HD scope with a vintage anamorphic projector lens mounted to the digital camera, the film is as attentive to the rolling, cutting, and drying batches of long noodles as it is to the shifting patterns of natural light in and around their small workroom, in which a small girl stares up at the swirling dust around her."[6] If I Were Any Further Away I’d Be Closer to Home won the Film House Award for Visionary Filmmaking at the 44th Athens International Film and Video Festival[7] and screened at the 27th FIDMarseille[8] as well as the 60th San Francisco International Film Festival where it was a Golden Gate Award nominee.[9]

Samarasinghe's 2018 short film, Piṭuvahalayā (The Exile), which examines Sri Lanka's post-war era, premiered in the international competition at the 64th International Short Film Festival Oberhausen[10] and subsequently screened at the 62nd BFI London Film Festival.[11]

Samarasinghe's 2020 short film, The Eyes of Summer,[12][13] which explores his mother's interactions with spirits during her childhood, premiered in the Tiger Short Competition at the 49th International Film Festival Rotterdam,[14][15][16] and was included in the 49th New Directors/New Films presented by Film Society of Lincoln Center & MoMA,[17][18][19] the 26th Slamdance Film Festival,[20] and the 49th Festival du nouveau cinéma.[21] The film also went on to win the Tíos Award for Best International Film[22][23] at the 58th Ann Arbor Film Festival.[24]

Samarasinghe's debut feature film, Your Touch Makes Others Invisible,[25][26][27][28] has received support from the Sundance Institute[29][2] and Berlinale Talents.[30][26][31][2]

In 2020, he was named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film[2] and in 2021 he had a solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art.[32]

References

  1. 1 2 "Rajee Samarasinghe". IMDb. Retrieved 2020-10-25.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Rizov, Vadim. "Rajee Samarasinghe". Filmmaker Magazine. Retrieved 2020-10-25.
  3. 1 2 "Inherent Mystery with Rajee Samarasinghe". McEvoy Foundation for the Arts. 2020-05-13. Retrieved 2020-10-25.
  4. 1 2 "Rajee Samarasinghe". IFFR. 2019-12-03. Retrieved 2020-10-25.
  5. ↑ "International Competition - Internationale Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen". www.kurzfilmtage.de. Retrieved 2020-10-25.
  6. ↑ "Festivals: Oberhausen". Film Comment. 2016-06-07. Retrieved 2020-10-25.
  7. ↑ "2017 Winners | Athens International Film + Video Festival 2020 - October 12–18". Retrieved 2020-10-25.
  8. ↑ "IF I WERE ANY FURTHER AWAY I'D BE CLOSER TO HOME". FIDMarseille. Retrieved 2020-10-25.
  9. ↑ "Shorts 4: New Visions". SFFILM. Retrieved 2020-10-25.
  10. ↑ "Competition Selection - Internationale Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen". www.kurzfilmtage.de. Retrieved 2020-10-25.
  11. ↑ "Today is a Thing of the Past". BFI London Film Festival 2018. Retrieved 2020-10-25.
  12. ↑ Martin (2020-07-03). "Short Film Review: The Eyes of Summer (2020) by Rajee Samarasinghe". Asian Movie Pulse. Retrieved 2020-10-25.
  13. ↑ Samarasinghe, Rajee (2020-01-24), The Eyes of Summer (Documentary, Short, Drama), Shalani Dilasha, Malka Malshani, Lanka Rajapaksa, Charlis Gamage, Envy the Monster, retrieved 2020-10-25
  14. ↑ "The Eyes of Summer". IFFR. 2019-12-03. Retrieved 2020-10-25.
  15. ↑ "Ammodo Tiger Short Competition 2020". IFFR. 2019-12-03. Retrieved 2020-10-25.
  16. ↑ "Cinema Scope | Discrete Charms: Rotterdam's Tiger Short Competition". cinema-scope.com. Retrieved 2020-11-01.
  17. ↑ "New Directors/New Films 2020 Lineup Announced". Film at Lincoln Center. 2020-02-20. Retrieved 2020-10-25.
  18. ↑ "Shorts Program 1 | MoMA". The Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 2020-10-25.
  19. ↑ Lattanzio, Ryan (2020-02-20). "New Directors/New Films 2020 Lineup Launches With Sundance Hit 'Boys State'". IndieWire. Retrieved 2020-10-25.
  20. ↑ "2020 Slamdance Film Festival". slamdance2020.eventive.org. Retrieved 2020-10-25.
  21. ↑ "THE EYES OF SUMMER". Festival du nouveau cinéma. Retrieved 2020-10-25.
  22. ↑ "Additional Awards Programs & Winners Announcement". Ann Arbor Film Festival. 2020-03-29. Retrieved 2020-10-25.
  23. ↑ "CalArtians Honored at Ann Arbor Film Festival". 24700. Retrieved 2020-10-25.
  24. ↑ "The Eyes of Summer". Ann Arbor Film Festival. Retrieved 2020-10-25.
  25. ↑ "Berlinale Talents Project - Your Touch Makes Others Invisible". Berlinale Talents. Retrieved 2020-10-25.
  26. 1 2 "South asian films shine at 70th Berlin Film Festival". The New Indian Express. Retrieved 2020-10-25.
  27. ↑ Samarasinghe, Rajee, Your Touch Makes Others Invisible, retrieved 2020-10-25
  28. ↑ "Your Touch Makes Others Invisible". HELLO BENJAMIN FILMS. Retrieved 2020-10-25.
  29. ↑ "Sundance Institute Names Latest Nonfiction Grantees". www.sundance.org. November 26, 2019. Retrieved 2020-10-25.
  30. ↑ "Berlinale Talents - Rajee Samarasinghe". Berlinale Talents. Retrieved 2020-10-25.
  31. ↑ Shedde, Meenakshi (2 March 2020). "How India Scaled the Berlinale Wall". India Today. Retrieved 2020-10-25.
  32. ↑ "Watch An Evening with Rajee Samarasinghe | MoMA Virtual Cinema Streaming | MoMA". The Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 2021-04-23.
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