School Day 2023
Concept:
The programme of the school day consists of a film in the original language with English subtitles, a lecture by expert speakers or filmmakers and an open question and answer session. In recent years, the focus has been on varied and relevant topics such as human rights, child labour, democracy or educational opportunities. Not only speakers from universities and aid organisations, but also the directors of the films were available for questions and suggestions.
The open exchange among each other is not only interesting for young and old, but above all important!
ALL THAT BREATHES
Documentary film
India/USA/UK 2022, 94 min
Hindi with English subtitles
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.
The film tells the story of toxicity – in the air and between people – and sheds light on a remarkable family that chose not to give up even in an almost hopeless situation.
Director Shaunak Sen explores the connection between the kites and the Muslim brothers who help them return to the skies, offering a mesmerizing chronicle of inter-species coexistence.
`All That Breathes´ is the first film to win Best Documentary at both the 2022 Sundance Film Festival and the 2022 Cannes International Film Festival, and was also nominated in the Best Documentary category at the 2023 Academy Awards.
Recommended for grades 9 to 13
THURSDAY, 20. JULY 2023
9:30 AM REGISTRATION AND ADMISSION
10:00 AM WELCOME AND KEYNOTES
APPROX. 10:40 AM
FILM SCREENING
AFTERWARDS Q&A WITH THE FILMTEAM
APPROX. 1:00 PM
END OF EVENT
TICKETS:
5 EUR / student. From a group size of 20 students, the group price of 4 EUR / student applies. The billing takes place on the day of the event at the festival box office according to the actual number. Two accompanying persons are free. For further accompanying persons the regular ticket price applies.
FILM TEAM
SHAUNAK SEN
Director
Shaunak Sen is a filmmaker and film scholar based in New Delhi, India. `Cities of Sleep´ (2016), his first feature-length documentary, was shown at various major international film festivals (including DOK Leipzig, DMZ Docs and the Taiwan International Documentary Festival, among others) and won 6 international awards. Shaunak received the IDFA Bertha Fund (2019), the Sundance Documentary Grant (2019), the Catapult Film Fund (2020), the Charles Wallace Grant, the Sarai CSDS Digital Media fellowship (2014), and the Films Division of India fellowship (2013). He was also a visiting scholar at Cambridge University (2018) and has published academic articles in Bioscope, Widescreen and other journals.
NADEEM SHEHZAD & MOHAMMAD SAUD
Protagonists
Former bodybuilders from the Chawri Bazar area of New Delhi, Nadeem Shehzad and his younger brother Mohammad Saud started treating black kites in 2003. Since then, they have together treated more than 20,000 injured birds. Nadeem was recently appointed as an Honorary Wildlife Warden of Delhi, and in 2021 spent three months in the U.S. for training with bird rescue organizations. Today, Nadeem and Saud continue to work tirelessly to treat black kites and other birds of prey through the organization they set up in 2010: Wildlife Rescue.
SALIK REHMAN
Protagonist
Salik Rehman joined Wildlife Rescue in January 2017. He has been an active volunteer at Wildlife Rescue since 2010 and has become an integral part of the organization in its many rescue and rehabilitation activities.
BEN BERNHARD
Cinematographer
Ben Bernhard graduated as a Bachelor of Arts (Camera) at the BHT Berlin before he started to study cinematography at the Deutsche Film-und Fernsehakademie Berlin (dffb). Since then he has worked on various short and feature-length fiction and documentary films as Director of Photography. In 2014 he received a scholarship at the California Institute of the Arts in Los Angeles.
Since 2009, Ben has been working with well-known director Victor Kossakovsky. Their film `Aquarela´ had its world premiere as an official selection of the 2018 Venice Film Festival, the U.S. premiere at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, won the Golden Star at the El Gouna International Film Festival, and was shortlisted for the 2020 Oscars.
Ben was nominated for Germany’s main cinematography award, Deutscher Kamerapreis, in 2019 for his work on Lost Reactor. The project also won Best Cinematography at the Achtung Berlin Film Festival. He also received an award for his work on the film Homework (director: Annika Pinske) which won the German Short Film LOLA Award in 2016.
