Sanjiban

| | | | |

Share
 

After his diagnosis with terminal cancer, eccentric filmmaker Sanjiban Sellew spent his final days at home with family and friends. Choosing to be as open with death as he was with life, he narrated on camera the extraordinary changes happening to him: “I feel myself becoming less of a human being daily, by the cancer in my brain that’s still chomping away at my electronics, my circuit boards.” After two and a half months, he died at home in rural Massachusetts. This short documentary takes place in the space and time between the end of one journey, and the beginning of another. With his twin brother John as our guide, we ferry Sanjiban’s body from home—a makeshift shrine in the dining room—to the furnace that will consume his earthly remains. “Sanjiban” is an intense, life-affirming story about the profoundly human experience of saying goodbye.

Film Details

Director: Ben Pender-Cudlip

Year of Release: 2012

Running Time: 7

New England Connection: Director Ben Pender-Cudlip lives in Somerville, and went to school at Simon's Rock College in Great Barrington.
The principal subject of this film, Sanjiban Sellew, was born, lived much of his life, and died in the Berkshires. His films screened in local and regional festivals, including the Berkshire International Film Festival.
The remainder of the crew lives in and around Boston.

Director(s) Bio:: Ben Pender-Cudlip is an Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker and cinematographer.
Ben co-directed and photographed the feature documentary Dawnland (PBS Independent Lens, 2018). He has shot and directed over a dozen short documentary films, including Sanjiban (Hot Docs, 2012), First Light (Camden, 2015), and Dear Georgina (Camden, 2019), all of which aired on public television. Accolades for his work include numerous festival jury and audience awards, the 2019 Media for a Just Society Award, and a national Emmy for Dawnland. Supporters of his work include Good Pitch, the LEF Foundation, Points North Institute, and Vision Maker Media.

He freelances regularly on independent documentary films in Boston and all over the world. Other clients include FRONTLINE, The New York Times, PBS NewsHour, and Human Rights Watch. Ben lives in Boston and graduated from Bard College at Simon’s Rock.

For more information: http://unrenderedfilms.com/