Wild Swimming

A poignant insight into the world of sport, where talent, passion and endurance mean everything, but give no guarantee of success.

The story of individuals from all walks of life that have faced incredible obstacles, found the drive to overcome their disabilities, and have through water sports become real everyday heroes.

Swimming, Dancing examines audiovisual representations of the Yangtze (1934–present), from silent film to video art to the contemporary vlog. Inspired by the city symphonies of the 1920s, Swimming, Dancing pieces together a “river symphony”, evoking the images, sounds and contradictions that make up the river’s turbulent history.

The film is about a protest provoked when the university decided to restrict access to sports facilities to athletes, cutting out all other students. This is, strictly speaking, not a Prokino film. It was produced by the Waseda University Film Circle, which was organized by Kawazoe Shiro. Feature film directors Yamamoto Satsuo and Taniguchi Senkichi were apparently students at Waseda at the time and participated in the production.

Alison Brown and Charlie Simonds plan this film at Britain's oldest naturist club, Spielplatz. It’s then off to the Greek Mediterranean and Crete to discover Kalypso Cretan Village. They meet up with friends, Jocelyne and Regis, to investigate why this resort has become so popular.

After missing bronze by 1/100th of a second at the 2016 Paralympic Games, Austin-based swimmer Lizzi Smith shares an intimate story of how changing her self-perception didn’t just bring her back to the pool: it’s bringing hope to the next generation.

Faire des vagues

Two weeks to go until the qualification race for the 2024 Olympics in Paris. A young Polish swimmer (Jan Kałusowski) prepares for a chance to compete at the most prestigious sports event in the world.

Swim Sistas follows the swimming journeys of three very different Black girls/women as barriers are broken down in the water.

The documentary chronicling Oly Rush's world record attempt to swim non-stop around Grand Cayman. All in the name of raising awareness for plastic pollution.

Float is an artistic 4-5 minute film shot completely underwater of trans folks swimming naked set to music by trans musician Rae Spoon.

Documentary film about the sports life of Croatian swimming icon Veljko Rogošić.

Laure ! Laure ! Laure !

Ultramarathon open water swimmer and painter Katie Pumphrey hopes to become the first person to swim 24 miles from the Chesapeake Bay Bridge to Baltimore's newly swimmable Inner Harbor. As she trains for and promotes this difficult swim, Pumphrey must face a public who thinks she’s crazy to swim in the historically polluted waters.

Cold Refuge is about the physical, psychological, and spiritual aspects of full immersion in the natural world: how, though it may seem counter-intuitive, swimming in cold water helps mitigate some of life’s most serious challenges. The film’s diverse film subjects include a wheelchair-bound, paralyzed swimmer who faces fear by diving off a high pier; a Black man who was told by whites when he was 13 that “Black people don’t swim” (it took him 30 years to try); a blind man who tethers himself to a sighted swimmer; a woman with aggressive breast cancer who “swims to chemo;” a lawyer who reduces courtroom stress in the open water; and a young woman who communes with her late mother in San Francisco Bay, where they both swam together. Along with swimmers’ stories of adversity and resilience, the film’s marine mammals, birds, artwork, and a variety of open-water locations create a visual meditation on what it means to escape our abstract digital world in favor of what’s real.

A 3-minute tribute to the late Mac Miller.

Before leaving for Rome with his mother, five year old Natan is taken by his father, Jorge, on an epic journey to the pristine Chinchorro reef off the coast of Mexico. As they fish, swim, and sail the turquoise waters of the open sea, Natan discovers the beauty of his Mayan heritage and learns to live in harmony with life above and below the surface, as the bond between father and son grows stronger before their inevitable farewell.

Swimming superstar Missy Franklin was destined for greatness at an early age, but it wasn't until the arrival of Veteran Kara Lynn Joyce that those sky-high expectations began to take shape.

Nikki is no professional athlete. Still, she swims the English channel to raise money for a good cause.

Blissful scenes of tourists arriving by boat and then sea bathing on a beach in the Venetian lagoon.