Dr. Lester James Peries - close up of a Cinema Great

Walking down Lester James Peries Mawatha last week, I arrived at a modest suburban house where I encountered Dr. Lester James Peries. At the age of 93, Dr. Peries was extremely frail and an aura of gentleness emanated from him. However, his mind was sharp and its contents were engrossing. An active film maker since 1949 he has been involved in almost 28 films, such as, Rekava, Nidhanaya, Gamperaliya, Golu Hadawatha and Kaliyugaya. It is not possible to compress 93 years into an article which can do justice to Dr. Lester James Peries, so this article is one that is done with the greatest degree of humility.

“Originally I was passionate about journalism. I wanted to be a journalist because in my time when I was young there was no cinema and at that time I was very interested in the cinema but there was no outlet. There was no industry. Then of course I went to London and one of my dreams was realized, to be a journalist and I got the job,” said Dr. Peries.

Feature writing

At that time Lake House was full and it was very difficult to get a job there. Most of the top editors and proprietors were all English people. “I also had a chance to join the Daily News because D. R. Wijewardene himself advertised and a group of candidates assembled. I must have been about 21 years. I went for the interview, and I was one of two people and he gave the other man the job. I was not selected. The other one was Fred Silva. And that actually was a good choice because Fred Silva became the Editor of the Daily News. D. R. Wijewardene must have had a sixth sense,” stated Dr. Peries.

Peries' fortunes turned when he went to London and they took him on to the Times of Ceylon. And in the London office, an editor, a marvelous man called John Hockin, a correspondent of many newspapers, took young Peries under his wing and he soon began reporting and feature writing. Hockin was a born newspaper man who loved it. “News can break any minute and it is at times a night and day job. It was a tough job but I liked it. London is really the best place to do journalism, because there you are with the cream of the journalism field. The finest newspapers in the world, and I carried on for five or six years in London,” said Peries .

Peries also recollected his association with Hereward Jansz, a friend who shared his passion for cinema. The two got together and decided to enter an annual competition in England called ‘Amateur Cine World Competition’, to select the ten best amateur films open to the entire country. Their production ‘Soliloquy’ (1949) was a success winning the Roger Manivell award for best technical expertise. After that there was no looking back for Lester James Peries. He was on the road to success.

Film producer

Peries recollected that his time in the newspaper was an epoch making time with Churchill winning the war but losing the election and the creation of the Labour Party. And the Labour Party created a huge revolution. They revolutionized the entire country by bringing in free education and free healthcare. He also recalled that taxes went up at that time.

And in the middle of all this, suddenly Lester James Peries was offered a film job. A known film producer had been appointed to the Ceylon Government Film Unit; this was Ralph Keene, one of the greatest documentary film directors. Peries’s editor told him to go and interview Ralph Keene.

“So I went along and he was a very polite man. I was asked to inquire from Keene what sort of programme he had for the development of the Sri Lanka film industry.

During our interview he told me - I know you are an amateur film maker. Six months later I got a letter from Keene saying I have been here for six months but I haven’t found anyone who is knowledgeable about documentary film making. What do you think of coming back to Sri Lanka? So I came back and worked with Ralph on a two year contract. And I must say I never knew a damn thing about documentary at that time. Ralph was a very forthright character. He said it exactly how he saw it,” explained Peries.

It was at this time that these two minds started working together. Two documentaries they did were ‘Heritage of Lanka’ and ‘Nelumgama’. Thinking back on his productions, Peries called ‘Gamperaliya’ one of the greatest novels written in Sri Lanka.

He called it a masterpiece. Peries counted himself lucky to be given the rights to film it. This was an award winning film. It won the Golden Peacock in India. The jury gave it the grand prize and the jury comprised of some of the greatest film makers in the world. The chairman was Satyajit Ray with Andrzej Wajda from Poland and Professor Georges Sadoul. The jury somehow knew that this was the best film.

I’m sure there is so much more to discuss with the fascinating Dr. Lester James Peries but for now let us bid adieu!

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