Céline Roustan
After a failed attempt, at fourteen, a man managed to flee mainland China, in the midst of the Cultural Revolution, by swimming to Hong Kong with his six year old daughter. Prompted by the 2019 protests, it is now his granddaughter’s time to leave Hong Kong, but not before she hears his story. In Freedom Swimmer, writer/director Olivia Martin-McGuire captures a multigenerational quest for freedom by crafting a hybrid documentary that mixes different mediums to create an echo between the past and the present.
“There is no fear, when there is no hope”
Martin-McGuire was living in Hong Kong, after having lived in China, when the inspiration behind this film struck. The current situation in Hong Kong prompted a reflection on its past, which is how it became a narrative articulated around a quest for freedom that is integral to the refugee experience. Based on interviews she conducted with different intergenerational families in Hong Kong, she heard the testimonies of freedom swimmers, active protestors and people who had already left, and built a screenplay by blending elements of the stories they had shared with her. Given the situation, the participants had asked to remain anonymous, which is why she decided to forego the traditional end credits out of respect.
“As a storyteller I am interested in cultural and intergenerational trauma and how lived experience informs and affects behavior and, to an extent, the resulting cycles and Patterns”, Martin-McGuire says. Interweaving the past with the present was an angle she was already building the story from, but she confesses that when she started the interview process, she was struck by the “commonalities in language” between the two generations. The feeling of hopelessness for one, which she included in the film with the powerful line “There is no fear, when there is no hope”.
“The fluidity of blending animation with live action and archive allowed us to really play within the parameters of the short framework” – director Olivia Martin-McGuire talking to Indiewire
To blend the three timelines, the past, the present and how they connect, Martin-McGuire uses three different styles that cleverly and seamlessly transition from one to the other, making their connection visual and all the more powerful emotionally. The sequences between the grandfather and his granddaughter immediately have an intimate dimension, which invites the viewer into their world, as they share tea. These scenes are the emotional core of the film as there is a feeling of intergenerational transmission, and it also carries the weight of having to stay anonymous for the participants. The footage of the protests brings the viewer to the modern day reality of the situation, with frames carefully chosen for the animation to build from, creating that link between the past and the present, fueled by danger and violence
If you are familiar with L’Heure de l’ours, you’ll undoubtedly recognize S/W alum Agnès Patron’s drawing style. Patron shared that her aforementioned Cannes film was used as a stylistic reference by Martin-McGuire, with the idea of using animation as “a moving projection of the Grandfather’s memories”. The animation allows them to visually complement the recounting of the grandfather’s story with an emotional, rather than factual, approach, which is ultimately the film’s main aim – one it certainly achieves.
Ahead of its online premiere with our friends at Aeon, Freedom Swimmer had an impressive festival run that started at the 2021 edition of Melbourne. It went on to be selected at many festivals including DOCNYC, Slamdance, Rotterdam and picked up awards at Sydney, Aspen, Palm Springs to name a few. Martin-McGuire is currently developing two projects, a hybrid feature, which she describes as an observational doc on some very special artists, and an animated documentary.