THE THIRD WAVE - Festival de Cannes

THE THIRD WAVE
A Film Directed by Alison Thompson
and Produced by Oscar Gubernati
Executive Produced by Morgan Spurlock and Joe Amodei
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Cinetic Media
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Winston Emano John Sloss
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Thethirdwavemovie.com

Short Synopsis
THE THIRD WAVE
How do we cross that line from writing donations checks to
actually volunteering?
After the 2004 Asian tsunami disaster, four independent volunteers
of divergent backgrounds, race off to Sri Lanka to see if they can
help. With little money or experience they arrive in the main
city, meet each other by fate, rent a van and drive off along the
coast. They stumble into Peraliya, a tribal village which has been
totally devastated by a 40 foot tsunami wave, leaving more than
2500 people dead.
The volunteers set up a first aid station and quickly find
themselves in charge of a refugee camp caring for over three
thousand people. What was originally a two-week journey spirals
into a year-long odyssey of hope, heartbreak and setbacks as the
villagers slowly begin to rise up against them when the worlds’
donated tsunami money never materializes. The volunteers break
every rule in the ‘Disaster Aid books’ and out of the rubble an
entire village is re-born.
THE THIRD WAVE is a roadmap for volunteering: it chronicles that
in a world of increased natural and manmade disaster, Everyone is
needed. No experience required.

THE THIRD WAVE
DIRECTOR’S NOTES
THE THIRD WAVE came about in an odd way backing up to the Sept 11 th
disaster where I worked as a volunteer for 9 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 a few 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 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.

THE THIRD WAVE
FILMMAKERS’ STATEMENT
In a world of growing natural and man-made disasters, everyone is
needed. September 11th, Katrina, Pakistan, the Tsunami, Darfur –
soon, we will have a tragedy for every date in the calendar. And
with every new disaster that comes upon us, the old one fades away
far before the recovery does.
As political animals, we have the intelligence and power to do so
much. We can fly to the moon and unravel relativity theories and
DNA codes, but the things we need to do now are a lot simpler than
that. There are so many problems throughout the
world including those directly in front of us.
Our hope through our film, THE THIRD WAVE, is to encourage and
inspire people to give a little back to the world. To volunteer
even for just an hour, whether it is helping inner city kids or
the elderly lady living next door or even with an environmental
issue. As people, we have the power to impact and influence
positive change.
Governments and humanitarian organizations around the globe are
experiencing enormous difficulties in providing humanitarian
assistance to affected areas. Too often by the time a recovery
plan is in place, a bigger disaster drives the international
attention and the media into the next crisis leaving many affected
people behind with a cause considered no longer fashionable.
THE THIRD WAVE is a documentation of our experience volunteering
and assisting the tsunami victims in Sri Lanka. This film
underlines the difficulties and joys of volunteering and its
message could be set in any disaster or situation. The main theme
being volunteerism. We do not intend to point fingers at anyone,
but instead share our experience and hope to motivate people to
search further for their own active role as a volunteer.
It was our goal to have THE THIRD WAVE provide a genuine inside
glimpse into what is really happening on the ground after a
disaster. We inter-cut this reality together with what was being
presented on the news reports around the world. The volunteers may
make many mistakes, but the important thing was that they tried
and that they were there to lend a hand and help make a
difference.
As filmmakers and volunteers, it was important to address the fact
that the process of helping people is often a complicated task but
at the same time, anybody can do it with no experience is

equired. Through common sense and the wish to help others we hope
to encourage people to reach inside to pull out ‘the best in
themselves.’
There is a hero in everyone.
-Alison Thompson and Oscar Gubernati.

THE THIRD WAVE
Cast and Crew Bios
Bruce French - Volunteer
A resident of Colorado’s western slope outside Telluride, Bruce
works professionally as a personal chef to popular rock bands on
world tour. When not on the road, the avid outdoorsman enjoys
climbing, mountaineering and Kayaking near his yurt home in the
San Juan Mountains.
While sailing around the world in the mid 90’s, he made a stopover
in Sri Lanka. Exploring the island on an old motorcycle, he was
moved by the island’s rich culture and raw natural beauty, but
mostly by the kindness and hospitality of the locals. It was that
kind hospitality that fueled his return to volunteer after the
tsunami tragedy.
Donald “Donny” Paterson - Volunteer
A native of Bowral, NSW Australia, Donald Thomas Paterson joined
the Australian Army Reserve at age 17 and then six months later,
the Australian Army. He became involved in Junior Rugby League
while in midst of his military career at a posting in Brisbane and
has been there ever since. He found his niche in Sports Medicine
and currently works as an in-demand trainer for Newcastle area
football teams and teaches popular first aid courses for the
community at large.
He is married to Tracey and has a son (Cory) who plays first grade
rugby league for the Newcastle Knights and two daughters (Karah
and Krystal).
Sunil Elvitigala - Cinematographer/Co-producer
Sri Lankan-born and Montreal-based Sunil Elvitigala left his
native land and backpacked through the entire subcontinent, the
near east and Europe and eventually to Canada where he is a
citizen.
While working several odd jobs, he studied at Dawson School of
Photography and, seeking to make a film about backpacking stories,
enrolled at Inderdeck College of film.
When the Tsunami hit his motherland, he felt compelled to return
to document the tragedy. Starting in the capitol of Colombo, he
ventured down the west coast and ended up in Hikkaduwa, one of the
worst hit areas. While filming, he met Alison Thompson who was
already making a film. She asked for his help. THE THIRD WAVE is
the result.

He continues to document various stories and plans to make a
Documentary about a brave teenage boy who is in a need of
continual medical attention after a tragic accident.

Alison Thompson - Director
Alison Thompson was born in the outskirts of Sydney in the
Australian bush. Raised a preacher's daughter, she has lived and
shot in over 30 countries. A former medic and mathematics teacher,
Alison moved to New York and enrolled at NYU film school. Three
weeks out of film school she Directed and Exec. Produced her first
Feature Comedy called High Times’ Potluck which won nine film
festival awards Including ‘Best Directorial Debut’ and ‘Best
Screenplay’ written by ‘Summer of Sam’ writer Victor Collichio.
High Times’ Potluck was released theatrically in the U.S.A and
Canada in 2003.
On September 11, 2001 Alison, rollerbladed to the World Trade
Center with her medical kit and became a first responder rescue
worker. For nine months, she stayed on and worked as a volunteer
at Ground Zero where Her 'Potluck' film Investor and many of her
friends were among those killed in the WTC attacks.
That experience changed her life as a volunteer and also the
direction of her filmmaking, with a focus now on stories with more
meaningful messages to the world.
She is the Creator and Founder of the first Tsunami Early-warning
Center in Sri Lanka called CTEC. The Tsunami Center is still the
only one in Sri Lanka today.
THE THIRD WAVE is her second feature film.
Oscar Gubernati - Producer
Oscar Gubernati was born and raised in Palermo, Italy and moved to
Los Angeles in 1990 to attend film studies at UCLA. After his
graduation he became the Executive Vice President of Stone Canyon
Entertainment, a production company based at MGM studios in Los
Angeles. He has worked as an independent feature producer
including: Tecknolust; Golf Punks; I Woke up Early the Day I Died;
Woundings; South of Heaven West of Hell; and Welcome to Hollywood.
In 2002 Oscar moved to NYC to establish Ozone Pictures Inc., a
production company specializing in Film Financing and
International Co-productions. He also served as Co-Executive
Director of IHAF International Humanitarian Artist Foundation, a
charitable organization whom awarded artists for their
humanitarian efforts. He is the founder of Football Without
Boundaries, an organization with the focus of promoting Peace
through Sports. In 2005 Oscar successfully negotiated and
organized a football/soccer match between two ethnicities who have
been at civil war for 40 years, the Sinhalese Vs. the Tamil Tigers
in Sri Lanka. THE THIRD WAVE is his first documentary.

Mario Grigorov - Composer
Son of a concert pianist and trumpeter, Mario began his western
classical training at the Sophia Conservatorium at the age of
five. his family relocated to Teheran, Iran where his father
performed in the Shah's symphony orchestra. For the next six years
Grigorov continued his training in western classical music while
absorbing the rich sounds of the Persian culture around him.
While playing the keyboard in a music store in Los Angeles, He was
signed on the spot to a record deal by Warner Brothers Records' A
& R executive Bob James. The Warner signing led to the release of
“Rhymes with Orange” and the number four Billboard Magazine
charter “Aria.” Prior to Los Angeles, Grigorov also began his
exploration of classical music through the medium of film scores
in Australia where he would do the original scoring for over
thirty films including. He went on to score Edge City, The Life
Jacket is Under Your Seat, Razor's Edge, Here, 29 Palms and
Shadowboxer.
Jaron Lanier - Composer
Lanier has been active in the world of new "classical" music since
the late seventies. He is a pianist and a specialist in unusual
musical instruments, especially the wind and string instruments of
Asia. He maintains one of the largest and most varied collections
of actively played rare instruments in the world and has performed
with artists as diverse as Philip Glass, Ornette Coleman, George
Clinton, Vernon Reid, Terry Riley, Duncan Sheik, Pauline Oliveros
and Stanley Jordan. Current recording projects include his
"acoustic techno" duet with Sean Lennon and an album of duets with
flautist Robert Dick.
Lanier's work with Asian instruments can be heard extensively on
the soundtrack to Three Seasons (1999), which was the first film
ever to win both the Audience and Grand Jury awards at the
Sundance Film Festival. A pioneer in the use of Virtual Reality in
musical stage performance with his band Chromatophoria, he has
toured around the world as a headline act in venues such as the
Montreux Jazz Festival.
Morgan Spurlock - Executive Producer
Morgan Spurlock is the writer/producer/director of the Academy
Award nominated film Super Size Me. The feature length
documentary film, Spurlock’s first, was named to more than 35 “Top
Ten” lists in 2004 and is currently the 8th highest-grossing
documentary of all time. The film was also awarded the inaugural
Writers Guild of America Documentary Screenplay Award, and the
Best Director Prizes at the Sundance and Edinburgh Film

Festivals. Recently, it was listed in the Top 25 Best Documentary
Films of All Time by the International Documentary Association.
In 2006, Spurlock’s New York based production company, Warrior
Poets, was named to Reel Screen Magazine’s Global 100 – which
listed the top 100 producers of non-fiction entertainment in the
world.
Also in 2006, Spurlock and Arts Alliance America created a film
and distribution partnership to releases films considered to be
groundbreaking and important that were overlooked by the majority
of filmgoers. Their first film, an Independent Spirit Award
nominee, Chalk, premiered theatrically in the summer of 2007 and
was followed by the Confessions of a Superhero (2007), Czech
Dream (2007), The Third Wave (2008) and What Would Jesus
Buy? (2008).
Spurlock’s latest directorial project, a feature length
documentary film that examines the state of world events,
titled Where in the World is Osama bin Laden? premiered at the
2008 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. This film was
released internationally in the Spring of 2008. “30 Days,”
Spurlock’s critically acclaimed series that examines social issues
in America by immersing individuals in a life that requires them
to “see the world through another’s eyes,” premieres June 3, 2008
on F/X.
Joe Amodei - Executive Producer
As President of Arts Alliance America, Amodei has created a fullservice
home entertainment company that develops, acquires,
markets and distributes feature film product in the narrative,
documentary, special interest and sports categories. Formerly Hart
Sharp Video, Arts Alliance America has successfully built
partnerships with E! Entertainment Television, Sundance Channel
Home Entertainment, ESPN, MLB Productions, Bombo Sports and
Entertainment, NESN, Tribeca Films and other high profile
entertainment brands since their inception.
Amodei raised eyebrows throughout the industry with the video
acquisition of Morgan Spurlock’s hit documentary Super Size Me.
This release forged a partnership between Spurlock and Amodei that
brought a line of documentaries to the market under the Morgan
Spurlock Presents brand.
Future titles for AAA include the documentary Chops, Heavy Metal
in Baghdad, Seoul Raiders and Never Forever starring Vera Farmiga.
Arts Alliance America is a division of Arts Alliance Media, based
in London and Paris. AAM is Europe’s leading provider of digital

film distribution services dedicated to building a European
digital network to deliver film to the cinema, home and between
industry players.
THE THIRD WAVE
A Film Directed by Alison Thompson and Produced by Oscar Gubernati
Credits
THE THIRD WAVE
An Ozone Pictures/Walkabout Production
In association with
Warrior Poets, Arts Alliance America and Endless Films.
Cast:
Donny Paterson: Newcastle, Australia.
Bruce French: Telluride, Colorado.
Oscar Gubernati: Palermo Italy, New York
Alison Thompson Australia and New York.
Village Chief A.P Darmedasa
And The People of Peraliya, Sri Lanka.
Director: Alison Thompson
Producer: Oscar Gubernati
Exec Producers: Morgan Spurlock
Joe Amodei
Peter Demas
Kym Anthony
Alison Thompson
Co-Exec. Producers: Richard Belfiore
Dave Pederson
Co-Producers: Cedar Daniels
Jeremy Chilnick
Marco Franzoni
Sunil Elvitigala
Russ Terlecki

Editor: Cedar Daniels
Co-Editor: Peter Demas
Cinematography: Sunil Elvitigala
Marco Franzoni
Composers: Mario Grigorov
Jaron Lenier

Sir Lanka Translators: Chamilla Priyanthi
Paddi mamma
Ginnie Mahr
Nalin Mohan
New York Translators: Irosh Colombage
Amila Goonawardena
Oshadhi Kapuge
Ranjan Samarakone
Associate Producers: Paul O’Neil
Production Lawyer: Paul O’Neil
Irosh Colombage
Publicists: David Magdael and
Associates
David Magdael
Winston Emano
Sales Rep: Cinetic Media
John Sloss
Special thanks to CNN, BBC Motion Gallery, CBS and ABC.
Original refugee websites:
peraliya.com
Communitytsunamiwarning.com
Footballwithoutboundaries.com
Thethirdwavemovie.com