Sparked by memories of a dramatic near-drowning at her swimming pool in a Black community during 1960-70s-era segregation, an African American swimmer/filmmaker dives into a multilayered journey into Black vulnerability in SURVIVAL FLOATING. Named for a water safety technique that allows someone to survive for some time in a body of water, SURVIVAL FLOATING travels from the African shores across the Atlantic, revealing how racial discrimination and segregation curtail lives.
In this feature documentary, award-winning filmmaker, Tracy Heather Strain (SIGHTED EYES/FEELING HEART) crafts a poetic tapestry of water stories from the past 500 years to provide an embodied look at Black peoples’ diverse and complex relationships with water and swimming. Together with sensory textures revealed during the filmmaker’s swimming sessions, the film draws from personal and public archives, television and movie clips, Super 8 reenactments, audio interviews, and evocative animation combined with an immersive soundscape to expose and dispel the myth that Black people do not swim.
Producers: Tracy Heather Strain, Robin Hessman, Randall MacLowry and Yvonne Welbon (consulting producer)
