Documentary Filmmaker
About
Kannan Arunasalam’s documentary work has received wide international recognition, and published in leading publications and platforms including Al Jazeera English, BBC, The Guardian, and The New Yorker. Kannan’s practice focusses on stories that highlight the long-term impact of conflict, viewed through a human rights lens. His approach is immersive, rigorous and reflective, working on films after years of intensive research and production. His last film, Sri Lanka’s Rebel Wife followed the central character’s journey in search of answers about her disappeared husband. The film was shortlisted for best documentary at the DIG Investigative film awards, Modena, Italy in 2022. Kannan’s previous film, ‘The Tent’ (2019) was the focus of his two British solo exhibitions at Yorkshire Contemporary (formerly The Tetley), Leeds and at the Brighton Centre for Contemporary Art. Kannan read psychology at the University of Cambridge and holds a masters degree in international human rights law from the University of Oxford focusing on new media and conflict. He was a visiting professor teaching ‘media representations of the Sri Lankan conflict’ at Cornell University’s Department of Asian Studies, and is working on his new feature film, Possible Landscapes, in collaboration with professors at Cornell University’s Architecture and Comparative Modernities Department. Kannan is available to work internationally in these different roles.
After graduating from the University of Cambridge with a degree in psychology, Kannan Arunasalam began his career as a defamation and human rights lawyer, working on lengthy libel, privacy and copyright cases for a leading media law firm in London. Together with his partners, including David Hooper the respected libel lawyer, they acted for journalists, publishers and broadcasters, defending their right to freedom of expression and giving pre-publication advice on non-fiction books and television news. These cases were the roots of the current trend of Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (or SLAPPs) that are being used by individuals, companies, and states today to curtail media freedom and block publication. But Kannan wanted to move beyond working vicariously for the media on their human rights issues and to tell stories himself.
From 2013 to 2019, Kannan was a director at Stateless Media, a US based start-up. Together with award-winning journalist Peter Savodnik, and Oscar nominated filmmaker Ed Perkins, they changed the media landscape with their “shortreal”, a 10-minute film that “marries the storytelling of print journalists with the cinematic prowess of the documentarian”. Their concept inspired platforms like The Guardian and The New Yorker, as reported in American Journalism Review ‘Pushing the Boundaries of Storytelling Through the Shortreal’, and in TechCrunch, ‘Post-Print Startup and Stateless Media Creates Short, Smart Documentaries For The Web’. Their clients included diverse platforms like AJ+, The New Yorker, The Guardian, Upworthy, Snapchat, Engadget, TechCrunch, AOL Originals, and Condé Nast.
Kannan Arunasalam is an award winning British–Sri Lankan documentary filmmaker. Kannan’s films have screened at international film festivals and art museums, most recently his British solo exhibition at The Tetley, United Kingdom (2019). His work has appeared in Guardian Films, The New Yorker, AOL Originals, and broadcast on BBC and Al Jazeera English.
Kannan read psychology at the University of Cambridge and holds a masters in international human rights law from the University of Oxford focusing on new media and conflict. He was a visiting professor teaching ‘media representations of the Sri Lankan conflict’ at Cornell University’s Department of Asian Studies, and continues to engage students in filmmaking on location with Cornell University’s Architecture Department. Kannan is available to work internationally in these different roles.