Directors Statement
Adapted from the screen play written by Noah, 5000 years ago, a New Day tracks the recovery,    3 months after the waters of the Boxing day Tsunami subsided in Southern Sri Lanka’s Talalla Beach. Director and local councilor Rod Stealberg, employing amazing cutting edge FX, including digital dead dogs, and a breathtaking motor bike combo undertaking overtaking  scene, has released to the screen an epic of nano science proportions. D.O.P. Rod Lens, recently returned form filming the block buster series, Tsunami Surfer Survivor, [where regrettably all contestants were killed], was quoted as saying, ‘New Day encapsulated all that is new, deep and significant in the field of handkerchief lens wipes.’
 
 Research assistant Rod Research spent year’s waiting beach side for the big one to roll in. And roll in she did. And roll out again, leaving the Indian Ocean coastlines in ruins. On the very southern tip of Sri Lanka, in the small seaside village of Talalla, the wave rolled in, early on a sunny day, taking every second home, and many of the householders within, drowned in their own homes, many people dying instantly on inhalation of a mystery dark brew within tidal surge.
 
3 months later, March 26 2005, the Buddhist society meets and commiserates, in their knowledge that the spirit never dies, and in the ruins that await the rebuild. New Day tracks this event, with a sobering train ride from Colombo to Matara, a train ride woven into the torn and shreaded fabric of one time tropical jewel.  Douglas Shire raised $82,OOO,  and along with similar funds raised in Byron, took up close and personal approach to a small, less touristy beach settlement called Talalla Beach, 20 minutes south of Matara, on the very end tip of Sri Lanka. Byrons’ funding went instantly into the clean up, back to school, back to employment path, with great success, making other areas look a little less loved under the bigger, slower, and less personal help of the big aid agencies. In Talalla, every single household got a hand.
 
The Douglas Shire arrived with help after 3 months of fund raising, looking to provide a civic gift that would last for years. Initially, the DSC sought  a council to council approach, which was not fruitful when our intermediary, and cost free charity agency AFAP could not guarantee that the council to council approach would not be subject to some corruption of process. According, and with the caveat that the DSC wanted to give where 100c in the dollar went to the project, the safer option of following the peoples’s choice was made, and  a 11m by 30m community hall,  which also doubles as a kindy/school/ business meetings centre is now under construction in the grounds of a 200 year old Buddhist school and temple, at the exact spot where the villagers fled for shelter after the Tsunami hit. Next years Port Shorts will see the follow on film to a New Day, as the centre is opened around the time of the 26 Dec 2006 commemoration. Rod Davis was greatly helped by Australians at the scene of the disaster visiting for two weeks in March when New Day was shot, with a futhur one month vist ahead to open, furnish and  to help organize the hall’s ongoing use.
SBS has sent teams to Sri Lanka to cover the fast action, no nonsense success of the Bryon/Douglas efforts, whose efforts stand out against the backdrop of frustrated, slow and at times totally ineffective aid for those who just gave, but did it without the personal linkage.

Rod Davis, Port’s local councilor organized the linkage, made the trips, and filmed and edited the video, as part of a team working to build awareness and connenction to Talalla, with the aim of adding purpose and connection to the contributors generosity, and all told, its been a great success so far, and a New Day is a tribute to the generosity of efforts of the fund raisers and donators, whilst adding a connection of light and sound to the little village that we took under our wings.