When “All That Breathes” begins, it’s unclear if you’re watching a documentary or a fictional film. The camera slowly pans over the cityscape of New Delhi, patiently introducing viewers to the world captured so beautifully in filmmaker Shaunauk Sen’s documentary. And that cinematic approach to the storytelling was entirely by design.
Sen revealed during the latest installment of TheWrap’s “How I Did It,” sponsored by HBO Documentary Films, that initially he began filming the story of two brothers who capture and treat injured birds in New Delhi with handheld cameras.
“What happens is that if you’re holding the camera, it has a kind of restless, anxious quality to it,” Sen said.