Haro Hara - About

About

The Film	Kataragama	The Filmmakers


Haro Hara: Pilgrimage to Kataragama was filmed on location in Sri Lanka from June through August 2003 and in February and March 2004. The film (feature length) follows a growing band of Tamil Hindu pilgrims through towns, villages, fields and jungles as they travel to a renowned sacred place of pilgrimage named after the deity who resides there: Kataragama. Every year since memory affords, Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim and Vadda pilgrims in Sri Lanka have made their way to Kataragama, a remote complex of temples and shrines (and a recently burgeoning town) located within the dwindling jungle of this tropical island. Many Sri Lankans regard Kataragama as the holiest place on the island; the powerful deity of Kataragama is famous within mythic and personal memories for interceding on behalf of his vow-taking and beloved devotees out of his compassion for their well-being in times of trouble and anxiety. The foot pilgrims travel down Sri Lanka's east coast. The film highlights the natural beauty of the tear drop shaped island off the southern coast of India. The region has been isolated and its people often severely affected over the past twenty years of civil war between the Sinhala majority dominated Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a now notorious rebel insurgency that has pioneered many types of terrorist activity and have set up a de facto government in the northern part of the island. Furthermore, the Boxer day 2004 tsunami decimated the entire pilgrimage route. Many of the villages and temples which we stayed in and filmed (it is a coastal pilgrimage) lay in the direct impact of the waves and are now rubble. The film profiles several pilgrims sponsored by the Kataragama Devotees Trust (a non-governmental organization established to assure the safe passage of pilgrims during times of ethnic conflict). The film captures many types of religious experience characteristic of bhakti (devotional and emotional) Hindu religion including trance or ecstatic possession, song, and various forms of ascetic and ritual behavior. The film also contains interviews conducted with Hindu holy men and selected pilgrims who personify the rationale of this religious quest.

The shrines of Kataragama comprise a special place. This site is not only sacred to Hindus, (this deity is regarded as the son of the high god Siva and has become a national deity for Tamils), but also to Buddhists (who regard him as a god destined to become a Buddha), Muslims (who have appropriated the site as conducive to their cult of saints) and the indigenous people of Sri Lanka (the aboriginal Veddas who regard the god as a mountain deity) all of whom participate in the manifold rituals performed during two week annual festival season. While the film highlights the multi-religious harmony achieved at Kataragama, its primarily focused on the Hindu pilgrims' long journey along the east coast and through Yala National Park. The journey is a metaphor of their spiritual quest. As such, the film captures both the individual and collective nature of the contemporary Hindu devotional religious experience in Sri Lanka. Since the 1980s, the traditional pilgrimage known as the pada yatra , performed by Tamil Saiva pilgrims from the extreme northern regions of the island proceeds down the east coast of the island through what are now regions contested by Sinhalese, Muslims and Tamils, had been almost impossible to conduct. But in 2003, due to a cease fire honored by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and the Sinhalese dominated government of Sri Lanka, this pilgrimage path became clear once more. The pilgrimage climaxes when it reaches Kataragama for the two week festival held to celebrate the consummation of lord Kataragama's love for Valli (his Vedda bride). Pilgrims arrive from all parts of the island for the colorful and festive nightly processions from his shrine to hers. Not only is Kataragama a place of great holy potency, but this festival in honor of the god and his goddess is the most auspicious time of the year for devotees to approach the god for his divine assistance. We hope to be in Kataragama this festival season to observe people making vows, specifically pilgrims we have followed before and those afflicted by the tsunami. We would like to have the film complete by the end of June. This summer we would like to return to the pilgrimage route, during the festival season and share the footage/film with the villagers that housed us and fed us during the pilgrimage of 2003.

The Filmakers Samuel Holt and Ethan Higbee began collaborating at an early age while growing up as friends in Maine. Ethan Higbee received his degree in Film from New York University in 2001 and started his production company Permanent Marks in 2002. He is currently directing a film about reggae/dub legend Lee "Scratch" Perry. Director Samuel Holt received his degree in International Relations from Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota in 2001. Experiences living in Sri Lanka and China led him to form Nomad Productions with the goal of producing films about global culture.