Touchy subject

It’s another round of screenings for Ghirija Jayarraj’s short film on asylum seekers

Cinematographer Pradeep Kalipuraya is also the director of Strange, a 40-minute movie that has screened alongside Touch as part of the recent ‘Perspective’events. (Featuring Malayalee Actors Roshan Mathews and Freddy Koi Karan Strange explores a peculiar characteristic that we humans possess through a light yet thought provoking narrative.)

Creative, mindful and articulate, ‘story telling’ is Ghirija Jayarraj’s passion and filmmaking is in her DNA. In 1977 her father released a film in Sri Lanka called Kathirupen Unnakaga and her mother’s uncle S. M Nayagam was a pioneer of Sinhala cinema.

Ghirija - Bharatanatyam dancer, dance teacher, theatre producer and curator - stumbled upon film making quite by accident. In 1999 while helping her parents with their community theatre show in Western Australia, she filmed what could be considered one of the first Tamil short films in Australia called Paddikal. (Stepping Stone).

That became her stepping-stone to more short films and documentaries under Rajsha Productions. She studied film at Curtin University, specialising in directing and producing. She also started a U-Tube channel known as Shastram.

Then came an opportunity to work with asylum seekers that sowed the seeds for Touch

With nearly $20-25K spent on the film, the economic viability of such projects comes under question. Is the multicultural art scene in Australia striving or thriving?

Gjirija was quick to reply that to her, the term multicultural artist seems a bit marginalised. “We are creating work that does not cater to any particular community. It is for overall consumption. I am influenced by cinema from across the globe including India, Britain and Sri Lanka but I am an Australian artist, born and brought up here. I learnt my craft in Australia. My work is Australian and I do not like to be labelled as multicultural.”

“Artists from any country find the initial years of establishing their careers challenging. I would love to be a full time artist, however, it is my career as an auditor with a multinational company that sustains me financially. A lot of my projects have been self-funded but my work is now slowly getting recognised and I look forward to my next commercial venture,” said Ghirija candidly.

“Everyone who heard the story came on board to help, and I managed to collaborate with some of the best cinematic talent including Kani Kusruti and Jack Prabhu from India and Melinda Di Natale and Subi Slater from Australia,” said Ghirija.

Ghirija’s goal is to make 10 short films before making a proper feature film and she is well on her way to achieve that dream.