The conference 'Cinema and Society: beginnings and evolution of cinema in colonial and post-independent Sri Lanka' will present the growth of cinema in colonial and post-independent Sri Lanka (Ceylon). It will highlight the groundbreaking efforts by individuals, both foreign and local, to consolidate its artistic, and industrial bases, including France’s own contribution to both the development of Sinhala-speaking films as well as academic research on the Sri Lankan cinema. The conference will take place on the 1st of December at The Lighthouse Auditorium and Lawns from 6pm onwards. 

Vilasnee Tampoe-Hautin is Professor at the University of La Réunion. Her research has addressed various aspects of Indian Ocean cultural history, with a focus on cinema and identity politics in colonial and post-independent contexts in India and Sri Lanka. Other areas of proficiency are socio-cultural and political movements in 19th-century Ceylon and their impact on nascent Sinhala cinema. She is the author of a number of articles and books, including two biographies of Sri Lankan filmmakers, Robin Tampoe, Last of the Big Ones (2008) and Sumitra Peries, poetess of Sinhala Cinema (2011), as well as a two-volume study Cinéma et Colonialisme: la genèse du cinéma au Sri Lanka (de 1896 à 1928), and Cinéma et Conflits ethniques au Sri Lanka: Vers un cinéma cinghalais “indigène” (de l'indépendance en 1948 à nos jours). Ethnicity, Politics and Cinema in Sri Lanka: Casting a Celluloid Mould from Sinhala Cinema (2015) completes her bibliography. The issue of the conservation of Sri Lanka’s film and cinema heritage recently entered her ground of predilection and is the focus of her forthcoming book, Bringing Back a By-gone Empire Seen from Within. Cinema Objects, Spaces and Edifices in the Limelight in Colonial India and Ceylon (1899-1950).