TV Times

TV Times

Contribution of Prof. Wimal Dissanayake
Prof. Dissanayake is a professor at the University of Hawaii and Honorary Professor at the University of Hong Kong.

He has published over 30 books in the U.S.A and U.K. on cinema, cultural studies etc. He is considered an international authority on Asian cinema.

A book was published in the U.S.A last month titled 'Contemporary Asian Cinema'. 'Wimal Dissanayake has made numerous contributions that innovatively think across Asian cinema. Dissanayake has been instrumental in creating a new map for international cinema studies that does not relegate Asian cinema to a marginal position.

Prof. Dissanayake earlier coauthored 'Profiling Sri Lankan Cinema' with Ashley Ratnavibhushana published in 2000, and was an introductory essay aimed at the non-specialist and general readers written with a deep acquaintance with contemporary film theories. It focused very concisely on the growth of Sri Lankan Cinema, and on mapping its high points and dominant trends, with discussions on the more important filmmakers. The Tamil translation of the same book was published in 2001.

Among the other books are 'Rethinking Third Cinema', Melodrama and Asian cinema', 'New Chinese Cinema' and Narrative of Agency'.

Commenting on the effort of publisher and the secretary Asian Film Centre (AFC) Ranjanee Rathnavibushana who had done a commendable job, said a book about Dr. Peries specially in English is need of the hour. "Compared to other Asian directors like Akira Kurasova and Satyajit Ray there is hardly anything written about Dr. Peries," Mrs. Rathnavibushana said.

"It is why we wanted to take up this task even without proper financial support" The book was jointly edited by Robert Crusz and Ashley Rathnavibushana. The book is available at the Sarasavi and Vijitha Yapa bookshops also at Asian Film Centre, 118, Dehiwela Road, Boralesgamuwa.

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