Oscar-nominated Indian filmmaker Shaunak Sen speaking at his residence in New Delhi. Sen's new documentary "All That Breathes", began as a "coping" mechanism after a shock cancer diagnosis, but continues the motifs of environmental degradation and caregiving that drove his previous work.
Indian filmmaker Shaunak Sen's new documentary began as a "coping" mechanism after a shock cancer diagnosis, but continues the motifs of environmental degradation and caregiving that drove his previous work.
Sen's "All That Breathes", which follows two brothers running a largely self-funded clinic for birds falling victim to Delhi's polluted air, won top documentary prizes at Sundance and Cannes in 2022 and was nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 2023 Oscars.
"It became a kind of coping strategy, or a way to deal or dissociate or displace the terror of what you've just been told," Sen, 39, said about his as-yet-untitled project, in an interview from his home in New Delhi.
The diagnosis brought home "the same risks" that make hundreds of birds fall every year from New Delhi's throat-burning polluted skies - this time on "my own body", Sen said.
