Kannan Arunasalam

Documentary Filmmaker

New Documentary Commission: ‘We Love We Self Up Here’, Cornell University, December 2020 – March 2021


Commissioned to make a short film, ‘We Love We Self Up,Here’, in collaboration with Assistant Professor of Architecture Tao DuFour, and Associate Professor of Comparative Literature Natalie Melas. The film explores narratives of lived experiences of urban, agricultural, and industrial landscapes tied to colonial and postcolonial legacies of sugar production and hydrocarbon extraction in Trinidad & Tobago. ‘We Love We Self Up Here’ is an extension of Cornell University’s fall 2019 Mellon Collaborative Seminar titled “Atmospheric Pressures: Climate Imaginaries and Migration in the Caribbean.” Department of Architecture, Art & Planning, Cornell University, 12 November 2021