At Retold World, we work in close partnership with individuals, organisations, and funders to amplify the impact of our films. Each project is shaped by a diverse, global team of creatives, and our enduring relationships with the partners listed below reflect our commitment to quality, collaboration, and shared purpose.
OPEN SOCIETY FOUNDATIONS
May 2019 to date
Retold World and Kannan Arunasalam have collaborated with the Open Society Foundations (OSF) on a range of media projects and their dissemination since 2019. OSF supports civil society groups globally with a focus on advancing justice, democratic governance, and human rights, and on backing those who resist authoritarianism. The foundation has contributed funding to Retold World’s latest documentary as well as previous impact-driven projects.
CORNELL UNIVERSITY
September 2016 to date
This feature-length documentary, part of a two-year research project investigating environmental experience in the Caribbean—specifically in Trinidad & Tobago—is now complete and currently screening at film festivals and university venues.
AL JAZEERA WITNESS
January 2013 - May 2022
Retold World collaborated with Al Jazeera English’s flagship human interest strand Witness on two documentaries: ‘News from Jaffna’ and ‘Sri Lanka’s Rebel Wife’. In 2013, Kannan Arunasalam was selected from among filmmakers across Asia to train with the Witness team in Busan, South Korea, under the guidance of Fiona Lawson-Baker, now Executive Director of Documentaries.
SHADOW COURT FILMS
October 2023 to date
We have collaborated with Shadow Court Films on our new feature documentary, Republic of Amnesia. Shadow Court Film is a production company focussed on making high-risk, high-impact film, TV, and video content around the world. With over 50 years of combined experience working across North America, Europe, Africa and Asia, Shadow Court has developed significant capabilities to produce groundbreaking work in adverse conditions. Their projects have won awards at multiple festivals around the world and are on the front lines of fighting for people's rights around the globe.
SRI LANKA CAMPAIGN
May 2022 to date
The Sri Lanka Campaign (SLC) is a global, non-partisan movement advocating for human rights, accountability for war crimes, and a credible process of transitional justice and reconciliation in Sri Lanka. SLC supported the international dissemination of Retold World’s two documentary films, ‘Sri Lanka’s Rebel Wife’ and ‘Anatomy of a Protest’.
THE INTERNATIONAL CENTRE FOR ETHNIC STUDIES
December 2024 to date
Sri Lanka-based International Centre for Ethnic Studies (ICES) informs policy and practice through research, dialogue, the creative arts and other interventions, to foster conditions for an inclusive, just and peaceful society. The ICES is a production partner on Retold World’s latest documentary, ‘Republic of Amnesia,’ and contributed funding and helped organise feedback screenings.
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ASIA
Retold World collaborated with Amnesty International to disseminate The Tent, a dual-projection installation film centred on Tamil mothers of the disappeared in northern Sri Lanka. Originally the focus of two solo exhibitions by Arunasalam—at The Tetley (now Yorkshire Contemporary) and the Brighton Centre for Contemporary Art—the film was showcased from February to May 2019.
STATELESS MEDIA
April 2013 – July 2019
From 2013 to 2019, Kannan Arunasalam was a director at Stateless Media, a US-based start-up founded with award-winning journalist Peter Savodnik and Oscar-nominated filmmaker Ed Perkins. Together, the core team pioneered the “shortreal” — a 10-minute documentary format that fused the depth of print journalism with the cinematic power of documentary storytelling. Their innovation helped redefine online documentary for platforms like The Guardian and The New Yorker, as noted in American Journalism Review, ‘Pushing the Boundaries of Storytelling Through the Shortreal’ and TechCrunch “Post-Print" Startup Stateless Media Creates Short, Smart Documentaries For The Web’. Stateless Media’s diverse films have had wide impact. If I Die on Mars remains one of The Guardian’s most-watched films. The Brothers Shaikh (2013), featured on both The New Yorker and The Guardian, contributed to renewed scrutiny and the eventual conviction of individuals previously shielded by impunity in Sri Lanka. Other notable works include The People's Prophet (2015) (Guardian Documentaries), Thep (2015) (for Upworthy, reaching half a million views in under an hour), Citizen Mars (2015) (commissioned by Engadget), and Trust Disrupted: Bitcoin and the Blockchain (2016) (commissioned by TechCrunch)
