The Sri Lankan Culture Collective is a project founded by Rosh Olivelle, Thana Sivasambu, and Ranji Thangiah, creative entrepreneurs who are passionate about celebrating Sri Lankan heritage, culture and identity.

As part of our digital programme for South Asian Heritage Month we are releasing a short documentary by Jei Palanivel. Jei has made a short film about the Sri Lankan seafood stew that hails from the north east of Sri Lankan, in Jaffna. As Jei says himself, this documentary is very personal.

“It marks the very early stages of a mid-life career pivot; from a corporate existence that I clumsily fell into and ultimately found deeply unsatisfying, into a more creative direction that is certainly more uncertain but is more genuine and honest to my character and interests. As part of that pivoting process I realised that storytelling, in all its forms, was a fundamental love of mine, and foremost among the media I loved was film. To test this I took a course at a film school in documentary making, and what resulted was this film, and a confirmation that I was on the right path. The contents and themes of the film are very personal: people, practices, memories, myths and places I care deeply about, that reflect my upbringing and continue to shape me through my life. And one of the underlying reasons to explore that content comes from a personal place of not knowing, of non-wholeness, that I think may be closer to a universal set of feelings, especially for diaspora peoples, immigrants, or simply generations alive right now, in this metamodern moment.  I made this documentary in Feb/March this year- my first ever film, and I know I have huge amounts to learn both as a storyteller and filmmaker, but a spark has been lit in me- modest, but potent. I intend this film to be part of a longer series of works that explore those aforementioned themes and feelings more extensively: the Kool Chronicles will travel across the global Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora and back to Jaffna, home of Kool. I look forward to the adventures and collaborators I meet along the way.”

The Sri Lankan Culture Collective is supported by the Hera Project X Sri Lanka and Wandsworth Council.