Directed by Ben Davis, exploring the cold-water swimming community of Gaddings Dam, Calderdale, West Yorkshire, home to the UK’s highest beach. Its community of wild swimmers, as they use the restorative powers of cold water to reconnect with their mental health, identity and the natural environment.
The restorative power of icy cold water is something that goes way back into history but it has also had a massive resurgence in recent years. Whether that’s more people wanting to connect with nature or simply a larger portion of the popularity taking health seriously. Wild Water shows us a culmination of both, those who appreciate the natural beauty but also use it to ground themselves and keep their mental health in check.
Ben Davis gives the film a great casual, community feel with a friendly atmosphere. Its subjects have an unlimited enthusiasm for the dam and how much it has offered them over the years. There’s a lot of exploration of emotion, with the subjects reflecting on past issues that they’ve found peace with through cold-water swimming. It’s touching and easy-going, not too heavy but at the same time, it can be somewhat simple. Their stories are relatively similar, so the film struggles to make a lot of progress.
Part of that hinderance is that it bounces around to a lot of different subjects and their stories, whereas it might have been more effective to rein the focus in. Especially when it comes to their charitable efforts, it would have been lovely to explore that more, as it has a lot of compassion and generosity to offer. Although, it still does a great job of capturing the key themes of Wild Water, the healing, reflective and restorative powers of water. The shot style nicely balances with those themes, there are larger, sweeping shots but it also holds onto a very personal tone.
Wild Water is filled with enthusiasm and tells a loving story about the restorative powers of the water, as well as its power to bring together a community. It’s shot well to show the larger picture and the intimate side of things, but it feels like it’s a lot of threads and missing a key goal or destination to bring everything together more effectively.
FilmCarnage.com 