New Delhi: Two Indian documentaries – Vinay Shukla’s While We Watched and Shaunak Sen’s All That Breathes – have been nominated for the prestigious Peabody Awards, the ceremony for which is to be held on June 9 in Los Angeles, US.
In an announcement on Wednesday (April 23), the Peabody Awards Board of Jurors released a list of 41 nominees in Documentary, News, Public Service, and Radio/Podcast categories. The list includes Shukla’s film on former NDTV anchor and journalist Ravish Kumar and Sen’s Oscar nominated film about two Muslim brothers who have devoted their life to looking after black kites.
Shukla’s film gained worldwide recognition shortly after its release with multiple international screenings in the US, UK and Canada, among others, for its poignant depiction of the rapid changes in the Indian media industry under an increasingly authoritarian government.
The film, which has won awards at the Busan and Toronto International film festivals, captures Kumar’s journey over a two-year period set against the backdrop of growing restrictions on free speech and journalistic freedom in the country.
It has been described as “timely depiction of a newsroom in crisis that follows Kumar for two years as he battles a barrage of fake news, falling ratings, and the resulting cutbacks while struggling to maintain fact-based analyses” by the Peabody group.
Also read: In ‘While We Watched’, Ravish Kumar Is a Picture of Courage in Perilous Times
At what is considered to be an exciting time for the Indian documentary industry, the nominations have come as a well-deserved push for acceptance of the nonfiction format. Shukla has been vocal about the lack of response from Indian distributors to organise the film’s screenings in India even as it saw house-full theatres and television premieres overseas.
While it has been screened a few times in New Delhi, Bengaluru and Mumbai as part of private screenings and those organised by film clubs and festivals, the film has not been made available to Indian audiences at a scale comparable to other countries.
Sen’s All That Breathes, which has won over 17 international awards including the top documentary award at Cannes, is also in the running for Peabody.
Also read: Director Shaunak Sen on Birds, Dystopia and the Dualities in ‘All That Breathes’
The film, as described by the awards group, is about two brothers who have “devoted 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 was acquired by HBO and is available for viewing at several online platforms.
In 2023, Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh’s Writing With Fire won a Peabody Award for Best Documentary Film, making them the first Indian filmmakers to win this recognition.
