Spotlight on Lester
the topic of this year’s oration was “lester James peries: in defence of humanistic cinema”. the event Also coincided with the 48th wedding Anniversary of lester And sumitra
Senior Minister for International Monetary Cooperation Dr. Sarath Amunugama delivered the second annual ‘Lester James Peries Oration’ at the Sri Sambuddhatva Jayanthi Mandhiraya auditorium in Colombo last week.
The topic of this year’s oration was “Lester James Peries: In Defence of Humanistic Cinema”. The event also coincided with the 48th wedding anniversary of Lester and Sumitra. Prof. Phang Lai Tee, Senior Assistant Director, Audio Visual Archives of the National
Archives of Singapore who was the guest of honour spoke on “A National Archives: Importance of Audiovisual Archiving Embraces Films and Beyond”. Revered as one of the Asian greats, Lester James Peries has won continuous international acclaim in several parts of the world. With 50 productive years, 20 full length feature films, teleserials, countless retrospectives around the world, bouquets and brickbats, national and international honours, Lester James Peries takes it all in his stride. The inaugural Oration was held last year, at the launch of the “Lester James Peries & Sumitra Peries Foundation” and was delivered by Prof. Wimal Dissanayake with celebrated Indian film maker Adoor Gopalakrishnan as Guest of Honour. The “Lester James Peries and Sumitra Peries Foundation” is an Approved Charity and is incorporated by an Act of Parliament. Its Trustees are Dr. Lester James Peries, Mrs. Sumitra Peries, Mrs. Gayathri Mustachi, Mr. Yadamini Gunawardena and Mr. Kumar de Silva.