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Breathing above the Treeline

Breathing above the Treeline


  • Nominated Best Director of a Short Film, January 2020, North Europe International Film Festival

  • Nominated Best Supporting Actress, January 2020, North Europe International Film Festival

  • Nominated Best Short Film, November 2019, Mabig Film Festival

  • Nominated Best Editor, November 2019, Mabig Film Festival

  • Nominated Best Writing, September 2019, Enginuity Film Festival

  • Winner Best Narrative Short, Platinum Award, July  2019, Pinnacle Film Awards

  • Winner Best Short Film, Gold Award, July 2019, Mindfield Film Festival Albuquerque

  • Winner Best of the Month, May 2019, Royal Wolf Film Awards

  • Winner Best Narrative Short, May 2019, Milestone Worldwide Film Festival

  • Nominated Best Director (female), May 2019, Indie Short Fest


A recent convert to Buddhism tries to convince a new acquaintance going through a brutal divorce that god exists.

Director’s Statement

Breathing above the Treeline converges at the nexus of rage, class and gender. That's right, rage. The rage of negation. The rage of rejection. Of being invisible and being misapprehended. The rage of women. It is a very personal film and it is my clarion call to women to fight for their human rights, whether these be personal or political. I am thinking now about the near abortion ban passed in Alabama and more recently, the “Heartbeat” Bill just passed in Texas. One possible tagline for the film was 'that's a man's doing, every fucking time,' which is the last line in the film spoken by the protagonist. I believe it's important to engage in hyperbole from time to time to make a point. In the end, I decided to go with another tagline for the film, 'Just breathe' because our fight requires this, too.

Here is the trailer. The full film is available to watch below.


Breathing above the Treeline

A film by Gitanjali Kapila