CrossRoads Neethan Shan EP6 [Canadian Tamil Talent Developement]

• published: 01 Apr 2015
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Young Tamil Canadian artists have obtained worldwide fame in the past few years. This has brought the artists and the industry, if you will, to the forefront. So in this episode of crossroads, we explore the status of talent development with our community. What are the things that we are doing right that we need to continue? What are the things that we are doing wrong that we need to stop? And of course, what are the things that we need to start doing to advance talent development. In short, we will do a start, stop, continue analysis of Tamil Canadian Talent development. To discuss this topic, I had the pleasure of having three amazing young and established artists on the panel. Lenin M. Sivam is a Canadian filmmaker. He was born in Jaffna, Sri Lanka and raised in Toronto, Canada. He is a talented storyteller who writes, directs and produces most of his films. Sivam is widely acclaimed for "revolutionizing Eelam cinema" through his offbeat, realistic and powerful depiction of the Tamil Diaspora. His first short, A Few Good People, won the Best Short Film of the Year Award from the Independent Art Film Society in 2006. After several years of making short films, Sivam first achieved international recognition with his feature film debut “1999” in 2009, which won critical acclaim winning several film awards both in Canada and around the world establishing Sivam as an emerging Canadian filmmaker to watch for. Sivam was named as one of the Toronto's Most Influential Tamils by the Tamil Culture Magazine in 2012. Sivam’s success continued with his next film, A Gun & A Ring (2013), which was well received both critically and commercially and made its world premiere at the Shanghai International Film Festival in June 2013 and shortlisted for the coveted Golden Goblet Award. Luksimi Sivaneswaralingam is a final year student at the University of Toronto, completing her undergraduate degree in music. She will begin her post- grad in September in music education. She is not only a musician and dancer, but is an active member in the community in the community. Yalini Rajakulasingam is a classical dancer trained in bharathanatyam. She graduated from the university of toronto with a major in political science and a Minor in theatre and performance studies and religion. She started training under her mother, Manimekalai and then began her Formal training under smt.nirainjana chandru. After completing her arangetram she went to India and began her advance training under Narthaki Nataraj. Since then she has been travelling to india to perform and continue her training.