Sonali Samarasinghe, ICOA’s writer-in-residence, served as one of the jurors for “The Dissonance Project,” a writing contest for high school students. The contest was sponsored by Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival (FLEFF) at Ithaca College. In an interview about her work as a juror for “The Dissonance Project,” Samarasinghe stated that she is “delighted to have the opportunity to be a juror in one of FLEFF’s many intellectually stimulating projects. In keeping with the broad theme of dissonance and as part of the FLEFF umbrella, I am also teaching a mini course titled “Justice: What’s The Right Thing To Do?” The full interview is available here.

FLEFF embraces and interrogates sustainability across all of its forms: economic, social, ecological, political, cultural, technological, and aesthetic. They recently sponsored their seventeenth annual Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival, from March 31through April 6, 2014. The 2014 Festival Theme was DISSONANCE. “Dissonance in all its forms is to be celebrated,” said Samarasinghe, “because through conflict comes new beginnings, fresh ideas, evolved thinking and change. Disorder will eventually beget order and without friction the bow cannot make sweet harmony. It is [the] evil that forces you towards the good, death that brings life, and the ugly that draws you to the beautiful.”