Cannes Jury Prexy Penn Screens Tsunami Doc

One of the surprises in the Cannes program line-up was a special presidential jury screening of Alison Thompson's The Third Wave. Of course the jury prexy this year is Sean Penn, who asked the Cannes fest to unspool the film.

I called up Penn's reps and got the following comment from him: "The Third Wave is truly a must-see for ourselves, our children and everyone we know, for anyone who has two good legs and a dollar in their pocket. It inspires the very best in us, just when we need that most. It comes as close to answering our purpose in life as any film in recent memory."

The film was shot after the 2004 Asian tsunami disaster by four indie volunteers who flew to Sri Lanka to see if they could help. They rented a van, filled it with supplies, and drove along the coast, stumbling onto Peraliya, a tribal village that was totally devastated by a 40-foot tsunami wave, leaving more than 2500 people dead.

The movie documents the strange year-long odyssey of these four volunteers as they set up a first aid station and took charge of a refugee camp of over three thousand people. The villagers slowly turned against them when the world's donated tsunami money never showed up. But they persevered, and helped to rebuild the village.

The Third Wave is being sold at the fest by Cinetic Media's John Sloss.

The director's statement is on the jump:

THE THIRD WAVE DIRECTOR’S NOTES

THE THIRD WAVE came about in an odd way backing up to the Sept 11th disaster where I worked at ground Zero as a volunteer for nine months. After that experience my life was changed forever and I had a deep desire to volunteer again.

In Dec 2004, after watching the tsunami disaster unravel on television, I knew I had to go and help. I have a background in nursing and third world countries and felt that I could do something. My boyfriend Oscar Gubernati was also moved and we packed up and flew directly to the other side of the world to Sri Lanka.

We gathered medical supplies, tents, sleeping bags, food etc. and also took along a small video camera to document shots of the destruction and maybe hold a fundraiser for them two weeks later on our return. When we arrived in Sri Lanka, ten days after the tsunami, the devastation was so massive that there was no-one helping and no one really knew what to do.

We met two other volunteers, Bruce and Donny at the airport and we rented a van, filled it with food and water and started driving down the coast, assisting people along the way.

We stumbled into Peraliya, a tribal village where a train had been washed away by a 40 foot wave killing more than 2500 people. The entire village had been destroyed so we set up a first aid van in the only remaining structure left (which was the school-yard) and began helping people. What started out as a two-week journey turned into one long year, as we found ourselves in charge of a field hospital and refugee camp.

We were so busy re-building the village that we didn’t have a lot of time to shoot footage. But in the back of my mind I knew it was important to keep filming, so we passed the camera around to ambulance drivers, kids or anyone else who wanted to have a go at filming and documenting the experience.

At the end of the second month we met a local camera man named Sunil who said he would film for us so we just kept on running the refugee camp. We returned to New York 14 months later with over 250 hours of footage that we now had to edit down into 88 minutes.

THE THIRD WAVE explores the complexities and joys of volunteering. It follows the first six months of our journey and leaves behind a roadmap for future volunteers. The title makes reference to the destruction and, ultimately, mankind’s response to it. The tsunami came in two waves: The first wave destroyed everything; the second killed more than a quarter of a million people and the third wave refers to the flood of volunteers and help that poured into Sri Lanka to help.

Even if we had never made this film, the camera became great therapy for our team, and filming kept us from going insane. Every night we would speak into the camera and let our feelings out and the next day we would be able to move on.

- Alison Thompson, director.