SATISH BABUSENAN

FOUNDER, THE CINEMA SANCTUM

Satish Babusenan is an Indian filmmaker, designer and former design educator based in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.

He holds a Master of Design in Visual Communication from the Industrial Design Centre at IIT Bombay. He formerly taught design at NIFT Chennai and has conducted workshops at institutions including the National Institute of Design.

Since 2015, Satish and his brother Santosh, working as the Babusenan Brothers, have written and directed a body of independent feature films. Their films have received awards at the Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival and the New York Indian Film Festival, have been presented at the Cairo International Film Festival and other festivals in India and abroad, and two of their films have been presented on MUBI.

The Cinema Sanctum grew from Satish’s work across cinema, design and education.

Cinema revealed the seriousness of the encounter between a work and its viewer.

Design revealed that the conditions surrounding an experience are not incidental to it.

Teaching revealed that attention can be invited and protected, but that a human response cannot be prescribed.

Through The Cinema Sanctum, Satish brings these disciplines together in a carefully authored form: one major work of cinema, a small circle of people and one complete day.

The Encounter is not a retrospective on his films, a filmmaking workshop or a lecture on cinema. His role is to select and prepare the work in conversation with the host, compose the conditions of the day, and conduct the Encounter without standing between the participant and the film.

EVERY MAJOR WORK DESERVES CONDITIONS EQUAL TO ITS SERIOUSNESS.

THE CINEMA SANCTUM GIVES CINEMA THOSE CONDITIONS.