Details
UCL Urban Laboratory presents All That Breathes and Oscar-nominated director Shaunak Sen in conversation, via Zoom, for the 2023 Cities Imaginaries Lecture.
Inaugurated in 2014, the Cities Imaginaries Lecture is an annual opportunity to hear a high-profile speaker from the world of art, film, literature or culture more broadly reflect on the relationship of their work to the city in the context of global urbanism.
Previous speakers in the series have included Caleb Femi, Roger Robinson, David Olusoga, Sonjah Stanley Niaah, Urvashi Butalia, Gus Casely-Hayford, and Linton Kwesi Johnson.
This year we are honoured to be screening the Oscar-nominated filmmaker Shaunak Sen’s recent documentary All That Breathes, which won the Best Documentary Prize at Cannes in 2022.
Following the screening, Shaunak Sen will join the room via Zoom to give a talk and take questions from the audience.
About the film:
In one of the world’s most populated cities, two brothers — Nadeem and Saud — devote their lives to the quixotic effort of protecting the black kite, a majestic bird of prey essential to the ecosystem of New Delhi that has been falling from the sky at alarming rates.
Amid environmental toxicity and social unrest, the ‘kite brothers’ spend day and night caring for the creatures in their makeshift avian basement hospital.
Director Shaunak Sen (Cities of Sleep) explores the connection between the kites and the Muslim brothers who help them return to the skies, offering a mesmerising chronicle of inter-species coexistence.
UCL Urban Laboratory invite attendees to stay for networking and complimentary refreshments following the Q+A with Shaunak Sen, to continue the conversation and share ideas. All are welcome!