All That Breathes - 1 nomination

 

Best Documentary Feature
Shaunak Sen
Aman Mann
Teddy Leifer

Saud and Nadeem are brothers living in Delhi who have devoted their adult lives to taking care of black kites (birds) who are seemingly falling out of the sky due to increasingly poor air quality in India.  They will go to any lengths, they will risk their personal safety, and they deliver medical care with such kindness and gentility that one has to wonder why this has become their crusade.  They barely sleep, even their families know that their top priority is caring for these birds. They do this against a backdrop of a more and more violent city under changing circumstances that makes their life's work all the more meaningful. Their dream is to open a proper clinic with an open air cage on the rooftop where the birds can rest and recuperate, and one of the brothers applies to veterinary school in the United States so that he can become an even more skilled practitioner.  All That Breathes is an incredible and inspiring documentary - I generally am creeped out by birds, and I couldn't look away.  It's lovely to have an Oscars film that is more heartwarming than sad, especially in the documentary category.