'Third Wave' film looks at natural disasters from spandpoint of relief efforts

Just as the arrival of Hurricane Gustav on the Gulf Coast brings back images of the devastation of Katrina, so any reference to hurricanes putting thousands of acres under water inevitably summons memories of the aftermath of the tsunami that wreaked havoc in Southeast Asia at the very end of 2004.

And those memories will always be more telling for some people than they are for others.

For the director Alison Thompson, the glitter of the Cannes Film Festival this year offered a jarring contrast for her and the three other volunteers who are at the center of “The Third Wave,” a documentary about the tsunami aftermath that was given a special screening at the legendary festival.

“We thought it was a long way from the refugee camp to the red carpet, and never in our deepest dreams would we think we would end up here,” she said at the time. “We were very grateful for being in Cannes to share our message to the world, but at the same time we were anxious to go on another mission for the people of Myanmar or China. The need never ends.”

It is that need to go on “missions,” as she calls them, that has kept Ms. Thompson from spending as much time in East Hampton as she did when she first became a summer resident 13 years ago. “The Third Wave” is a film about the mission to Sri Lanka in December 2004 immediately after the tsunami that killed an estimated 300,000 in that country, the Philippines, and across the region.

The screening at Cannes was arranged by Sean Penn, who was head of the jury and is an enthusiastic supporter of the movie’s message of global volunteerism. “The Third Wave” received a first-time-ever Presidential Jury Screening at the festival. Plans called for it to be released in theaters in the U.S. before the end of August so that it could qualify for Academy Award consideration.

Ms. Thompson is one of five children born to a minister and his wife, a nurse, in the outskirts of Sydney, Australia. Growing up, she spent time in third world countries while accompanying her parents on their missionary trips. But she also liked surfing and swimming with dolphins, and her ambition was to become a professional cricket player. That dream was dashed when she was a passenger in a violent car crash right before the Australian national team was chosen, and it was two years before she could walk. She became a math teacher instead.

It seems that the time she spent in a classroom was only what was necessary. Ms. Thompson traveled ... a lot. She has been to every continent, including Antarctica, where she reached the South Pole. Most enjoyable, she said, was sleeping under the stars in Africa, where she encountered charging rhinos, hippos, and elephants and one time discovered eight lionesses sleeping outside her tent.

Eighteen years ago she decided to switch careers and she moved to New York City to work on Wall Street. She also attended the film school at New York University. Then came 9/11. After viewing the first reports on TV, she rollerbladed from her Upper East Side apartment to the Twin Towers, clutching a first-aid kit. When she arrived she reached into a debris pile to grab an arm to help free the man underneath, but what she ended up holding was just an arm.

Giving up everything else, she became a volunteer at Ground Zero. She was there when President Bush stood before the rubble and vowed that the U.S. would hunt down the evildoers and bring them to justice. She stayed there to search through the rubble for bodies and body parts—Ms. Thompson and her group collected 68 green garbage bags full—and she manned a Ground Zero first-aid station for nine months.

Afterward, she founded Wecare, an organization that builds schools in third world countries, and directed her first feature film, “High Times Potluck,” a Mafia caper. The next major event to change her life was the December 2004 tsunami. Within days, she was on a plane.

Ms. Thompson and three others—Donny Paterson from Australia, Oscar Gubernati from Italy, and Bruce French, who had been Pearl Jam’s personal chef when the band went on tour—found each other in Peraliya. The small coastal village in Sri Lanka had literally been wiped off the map, and a train passing by when the tsunami hit was destroyed and the 2,500 people on it were killed.

The volunteers set up an aid station that almost immediately turned into a refugee camp for more than 3,000 people. In the absence of a physician and any government aid, Ms. Thompson put on the Red Cross kerchief her mother had handed down (along with the first-aid kit) and took over as team leader in charge of medical care. What was supposed to be a two-week stay turned into an exhausting experience that lasted for most of 2005.

Sometimes with their bare hands and with the roughest of materials, the four volunteers established running water, built a school, erected temporary housing and then began to build homes, treated the sick, and did whatever was necessary to bring Peraliya to life again. They also spent time tapping every source they could think of for money to buy medicine, books, and building materials. As for the money raised by benefit concerts and donated by the U.S. and other countries, none of it trickled down to the small villages that needed it most, and there are billions of dollars still missing.

Using her keen eye and a camera that she taught a Sri Lankan how to use, Ms. Thompson recorded the experiences in Peraliya. The four volunteers, who over time were joined by others from all over the world, operated on little food and rest. After a few months the gregarious Mr. Paterson collapsed and was taken to a hospital four hours away. When he returned, it was obvious that he was too debilitated to carry on and he was sent home to his wife and four children. (He came back a couple of months later, declaring, “I’m not a guy to leave a job unfinished.”)

The progress of exhaustion can be read in the deepening lines on the faces of Mr. French and Mr. Gubernati in the documentary.

Ms. Thompson came to be called “angel” by the villagers because of her constant caring and blonde hair. That said, one of the most remarkable aspects of “The Third Wave” is that it shows the jealousy and resentment that began to fester and then break out among the Sri Lankans once they were getting back on their feet.

Not only did they suspect that the volunteers were not treating them equally and were somehow enriching themselves with aid money, but as their conditions improved, the people resumed tribal hostilities, and added the treatment of wounds made by knives and other weapons to Ms. Thompson’s responsibilities.

When she returned to New York and the comforts of a mattress and hot showers—for which she had a newfound appreciation—Ms. Thompson had 250 hours of film. Somehow, she and her editor carved out a 90-minute movie that was first shown last fall at the Tribeca Film Festival and is getting more exposure on the international circuit. “The Third Wave” was voted Best Documentary at the Morocco Film Festival at the end of May.

The movie tells a riveting story, and perhaps the most significant fact about its higher profile is that it shows how a handful of volunteers really can make a difference. “We tried to show a road map for others to follow in the future and that everyone is needed,” Ms. Thompson said.

“No skills required, if you have a desire to help, a way will be found to do so,” she continued. “The film shows that people shouldn’t just say, ‘Oh, it’s okay, someone else is taking care of it,’ because they aren’t. The government did nothing for their own people. And there is always room for the common sense of the volunteer.”

This message had a special appeal for Sean Penn. The actor has been involved in numerous philanthropic efforts, and he is now promoting “The Third Wave” everywhere he can. “This documentary is truly a must-see for ourselves, our children, and everyone we know—for anyone who has two good legs and a dollar in his pocket,” the Los Angeles-based actor and director said. “It inspires the very best in us, just when we need that most, and comes as close to answering our purpose in life more than any other film in my recent memory.”

“Sean is one of the kindest and most highly intelligent humans I have ever known,” Ms. Thompson declared. “Although some people may not always agree with his opinions, his words will be echoed through the generations when all the sheep are blue and buried. In Cannes he was praised for his timeliness in bringing ‘The Third Wave’ to the world immediately in the wake of the disasters in Myanmar and China, but in fact he had selected this film three months ago. Sean has an uncanny way of being way ahead of everyone’s thinking.”

Mr. Penn had been so inspired by “The Third Wave” that two weeks before Cannes he had invited Ms. Thompson to accompany him on his annual “Dirty Hands” tour, which involves more than a hundred people—almost all in their 20s—traveling cross-country on buses to volunteer to do community projects. Ms. Thompson filmed the efforts and the response to them in American communities, and is creating a new documentary from the experience.

Then it was off to France and the traditional frenzy that is the world’s most well-known film festival. The special showing of “The Third Wave” in Cannes was very successful. There was a standing ovation at the end. Among those in attendance in addition to Mr. Penn were Michael Moore, Brad Pitt, Natalie Portman, Faye Dunaway, and Bono, who afterward promised to write a song for the film.

“Our little documentary may be small compared to the Goliaths of the Indiana Joneses at Cannes, but we ended up holding our own,” Ms. Thompson said.

She barely ended up holding her own. Still weary from the cross-country bus tour, Ms. Thompson found the pace of the Cannes event almost as daunting as keeping up with the needs of disaster victims.

“Nobody sleeps at Cannes,” she said. “I tried to, but got knocks on doors at 3 a.m. and got dragged out all over the place. There are lots of screenings and dinner is at midnight and there are plenty of yawns at breakfast, and then it starts all over again. When I felt especially tired, I tried to console myself that no one else there—other than Sean—had just spent 10 days volunteering and filming over a hundred 20-year-olds across America.”

After finishing the “Dirty Hands” documentary, Ms. Thompson was set to direct her second feature, “The God Committee,” later this year ... if she can let go of pushing her documentary and its global themes. The film is continuing to find outlets at festivals and special events. In early June, “The Third Wave” was well-received at the annual Directors Guild of America gathering in Los Angeles. It probably doesn’t help her time management issues that she has signed a contract with an imprint at Random House to write her autobiography.

Sri Lanka has not faded into the past. Before she left Sri Lanka, Ms. Thompson set up the Community Tsunami Early Warning Centre along the coast of that country, designed to reduce—or, even better, eliminate—fatalities when the next one strikes. The system proved its value last September when a tsunami approached the country. It didn’t strike land, but still offered an opportunity for rehearsal and thousands of people did get to designated high-ground areas.

Ironically, a few weeks before, Ms. Thompson had almost pulled the plug on the system because she was running out of money. (Visit www.communitytsunamiwarning.com to find out about the system, view photos, and learn about making a donation.) But shouldn’t the system be on easy street thanks to a documentary gaining international attention?

“Even after the reception at the Tribeca Film Festival and other showings, and Cannes, too, I still have the sole responsibility of running what remains the only tsunami center in Sri Lanka, and that has sometimes meant going without paying rent and eating,” Ms. Thompson said. “Thankfully, things have just changed because Petra Nemkova, the model whose boyfriend died in the tsunami, has put her Happy Hearts Foundation behind the system. I think we’re ready for the next one ... and there will be another one.”

She added: “With climate change, more and more coastal areas have to be aware of the potential for a tsunami. When I met with [Supervisor] Bill McGintee last spring, it was because I knew East Hampton was looking into its own vulnerability and what it could do to prepare.”

“I wish that great filmmakers with clout like Steven Spielberg would, among their blockbusters, just release one good documentary a year that contains a strong message to the world,” she continued. “Even if it takes a loss, it is such a little loss compared to the thousands of lives not lost if people are moved to action by watching it and being inspired. It’s a win-win because if it can be under a large film company’s umbrella charity section, they can probably get a tax write-off on it.”

It seemed that the only way that Ms. Thompson could have been able to spend some quality summer time in East Hampton was to arrange for a showing of “The Third Wave” there. She had hoped to have one—a sponsoring committee formed during the spring included Russell Crowe, Donna Karen, Ms. Nemkova, and others in addition to Sean Penn—but scheduling problems proved too difficult to overcome.

Ms. Thompson is hoping that she can present the film and its message of helping those in need at a local high school after students return to the classroom.

“I guess what it boils down to is for me to actually think about being in East Hampton solely for vacation purposes, there would have to be a time without disasters and tragedies, especially in the most vulnerable places and people in the world,” she said. “But we all know, that isn’t going to happen. What we can do is help ... before and after.”