Sandun Seneviratne - Writer, Director.
Sandun Seneviratne is an award winning Sri Lankan writer, director and producer trained at the London Film Academy.
As a child, Sandun became fascinated with Hollywood movies and began making Hollywood inspired short films from a young age. Directors such as James Cameron, Ridley Scott and Michael Mann were his inspirations growing up and he also developed a fascination for science fiction and devoured sci fi classics such as Dune by Frank Herbert and Ringworld by Larry Niven. After experimenting with writing and directing several sci-fi short films utilizing improvised methods in Sri Lanka, he then came to London Film Academy in the United Kingdom to further develop his skills and made several Short films on Super 16 and HD.
A short film he wrote and directed while in film school called ‘The Seer’, a post-apocalyptic sci/fi action film starring Joey Ansah who played the villain in hit Hollywood film 'The Bourne Ultimatum', was selected to be screened at several international genre film festivals including the Phoenix Comicon Film Festival. The Seer was released on Facebook with added footage as a web series called Seer: Death Sight.
After completing his studies at the LFA, Sandun returned to Sri Lanka to found his production company Synhedrion Studios, in order to write, direct and produce Hollywood style genre pictures, against the contrasting and beautiful backdrop of Sri Lanka.
A short film he wrote and directed called 'Vikaari', addresses racial prejudice through the lens of science fiction. Vikaari won best short at Screamfest LA, the largest horror film festival in the world. Vikaari is the first South Asian film to achieve such a milestone.
The story of Vikaari is the result of his experiences living in Sri Lanka where many religions and cultures converge to create a unique way of living. Sri Lanka is home to Buddhist, Muslim, Christian and Hindu populations.
Having lived through a three decade long military conflict Sandun is interested in how we can deal with our innate and ancient fear of ‘the other’, the fear of things that are different to us, in order to build a truly functioning society.
During production, Sandun and his co-director Charlie Bray employed a combination of traditional storytelling and a faux documentary style which was effective in conveying the real life impact of such a story. Sandun was inspired by Neil Blomkamp’s award winning short ‘Alive In Joburg’ which led to the feature film ‘District 9’ and how it used real life footage mixed with fictional scenes in order to lend the film an aura of authenticity. Sandun and his crew filmed non actors speaking directly to the camera regarding real life subject matter that is similar to the subject matter of the film and inter cut that footage with fictional scenes.
When producing the fifteen minute short film Sandun and his crew learned how to keep costs low by making their lack of resources into a strength. They had to use a variety of methods such as using real world stock footage and using a faux documentary approach.
Ultimately the thematic conclusion of Vikaari is that we are stronger together, which is a message that Sandun and his team believe is important in these turbulent times.
Sandun’s mission as a filmmaker is to write, direct and produce genre films with high production values, aimed at an international audience, that cost a lot less than similar Hollywood films. He believes that there is an audience out there for stories told with the storytelling flare of American films but set in diverse locations and cultures and featuring a diverse cast of characters from around the world.
