The Bonsoir Diaries from AF
French Spring Festival 2013:
The Alliance Francaise (AF)in Sri Lanka and the Embassy of France
will launch 'The Bonsoir Diaries' by Kumar de Silva as part of its
on-going month-long French Spring Festival 2013. Open to the public,
this event takes place at 6.30 pm on Tuesday 02 July at the BCIS - BMICH
in Colombo.
The Bonsoir French Television Programme presented by the Embassy of
France in Sri Lanka enthralled Sri Lankan television audiences since
July 1985. It ran for twenty-five years and finally wound up in December
2010, leaving an indelible memory with the thousands who grew up with
it.
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Recording
in the French Embassy garden in the 1990s |
Barely three years after Bonsoir's demise comes 'The Bonsoir
Diaries', un-edited and un-plugged, by Kumar de Silva, one of its
pioneers, who, together with his erstwhile colleagues Yasmin Rajapakse
and Chintananda Abeysekera, created magic on the little screen during
those early days of television.
A Samaranayake publication, 'The Bonsoir Diaries' is a cocktail of
explosive chapters, bursting at their seams, and, revealing everything
you never saw on your favourite television show ... from the 80s ...
through the 90s ... into 2000.
Counsellor for Cooperation and Cultural Affairs of the French Embassy
Michel Treutenaere says, "'The Bonsoir Diaries' is a delightful
collection of 50 unpretentious 'essays', which transforms the book into
a testimony of the "belle epoque" of Bonsoir. It is also a 'reference
book' about a show, an investment at risk, which made its debut on the
airwaves with a small audience, and which, thanks to the professionalism
and creativity of its staff, became a great media success and a shining
example of worthy audio-visual cooperation".
"No one who has watched this ground-breaking television programme on
ITN will ever forget it. It excelled in visual profiles and was packed
with news, views, music, biographies, all of which linked two countries
- France and Sri Lanka - in electric matrimony", says Dr. Lester James
Peries.
"Bonsoir successfully exposed Sri Lankans to the modern world by
showcasing France and Europe with typical Sri Lankan flavour. Its
positive journalistic influence and sensational style, shaped the manner
in which Sri Lankan youth thought and acted, as they prepared to embrace
the dramatic global evolution at that time", adds CEO of Caltex Kishu
Gomes.
"On instant face value, 'The Bonsoir Diaries' is a graphical record
of the glorious years of this highly watched television show.
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Recording
in the Bonsoir studio in the ‘90's |
One will also realise that the author seamlessly goes beyond his
original mandate and parallely makes this an unconscious record of
Franco-Sri Lankan ties, bilateral, diplomatic and otherwise, spread over
nearly three and a half centuries, going back to 1672, all of which are
skillfully woven into the narrative", says the publisher Ranjith
Samaranayake.
Kumar de Silva (www.kumardesilva.com) was decorated 'Chevalier in the
Order of Arts and Letters' by the Government of France in October last
year, in recognition of his significant contribution to promoting French
culture and communication in Sri Lanka for more than a quarter of a
century.
A Public Relations and Media Consultant, he has held two black and
white photography exhibitions - Nostalgie - on France, with a third.
'The Eiffel Tower - unplugged', scheduled for October 2013.
Paris-trained, and an award-winning television personality, he is a
founder member of the Alliance Francaise de Kotte.
His previous publications were 'Lester by Lester' and 'Irangani', on
Sri Lanka's celebrated film personalities. He is currently working on
his next book - 'Sumitra' - celebrating the life and times of Sri
Lanka's award-wining woman filmmaker. |