Director’s Statement
For more than 20 years I’ve been making and supporting social impact documentaries, dealing with some of the most challenging topics of our times — racism, child protection and abuse, youth homelessness, climate change, domestic violence, and teenage incarceration. I have long believed in the power of documentary for social change. Films that can shape attitudes, behaviour and even laws in this country.
More recently, however, I felt it was time to make a shift and create a film that might bring great joy and happiness to audiences, one that might put a smile on their faces and allow them to dream a little of their own lives.
Maybe it was turning 60, or possibly a hangover from the relative isolation of COVID? But after a short diversion into playwriting and acting, I returned to the world of documentary, determined to make films that highlighted the more positive elements of our society. I wanted to make films that illuminated unknown pockets of our world, that would open our eyes to the beauty of our own environment, whether urban or rural. Films that could highlight our yearning as social creatures for connection and a sense of community.
I have typically made films where I have felt a strong connection. THE POOL is one such film. While searching for the next story, I suddenly realised that Bondi Icebergs was right under my nose! Swimming is my main form of exercise. I swim about five times a week — in pools, bays and the ocean, even when the temperature plummets. That’s how much I love it!
My favourite place to swim is on the edge of Sydney’s famous Bondi Beach, at the beautiful Bondi Icebergs pool — the most photographed pool in the world. It is an ocean pool, totally open to the elements, cleaned once a week and filled by the waves of a rising tide. That is one of the greatest attractions for me — swimming through the waves crashing over the edge directly into the swimming lanes most mornings.
Despite being a regular swimmer I’m not a member of the Icebergs winter swimming club. I don’t have the discipline to do the 75 swims in 5 years over the winter months from May to end of August. But I do have enormous respect and admiration for those who do. Routine is a very powerful force and discipline, and we observe these patterns in the film. We see a club where people care for and respect each other. They laugh, they connect, they are free of judgement, they don’t care what you did or who you were — they simply share a connection, a love of swimming and the challenge of cold water. This is a place where everyone is equal in their swim suits.
We set out to make a beautifully cinematic film, where every shot is a stunning portrait and a pleasure to watch. The filmmaking process opened our eyes to the raw beauty of the place, and how the smallest detail; a random wave, a spectacular sunrise, a massive storm, a perfect dive, an individual swimming stroke, the challenge of cold water, the fear of swimming, the healing powers of the water could help us create a story measured and told by the sum of the parts. Making this film also opened our eyes to the incredible cast of characters who populate this place. We didn’t want to make a traditional film where we followed a limited number of people in detail, rather we wanted to gain snippets from many characters who call the pool their home. But more than anything we wanted to make a film where there was just one central character. The pool itself. It just happened to have lots of arms and legs, and an endless well of stories to tell.
This is a time for gentle, poetic, meditative films to also find a place in the canon. We will always need documentaries that highlight injustice, human rights abuses, environmental destruction, and a myriad of other problems. But sometimes we need films that make us feel good about being human again too, and, perhaps, never more than now.
Ian Darling
Director — THE POOL
Sydney, May 2024.
