Swimming Club film now released for public viewing
The film The Swimming Club, winner of the 2015 annual #TweetaPitch competition and which received its world premiere at the 2016 We The Peoples Film Festival has now been released for public access viewing. “We are extraordinarily proud to have played an important part in the funding of this film” said David Wardrop, chairman of UNA Westminster which organises the We The Peoples Film Festival. “The Swimming Pool will serve as a valuable resource to all tackling prejudice on transgender issues, especially those in less tolerant societies. We will help the film’s directors reach out to all interested parties.”
The film focusses closely on the experience of swimming for transgender people, but in doing so, it obliquely looks at the broader subject of what it's like to be transgender in 2017. It follows a group of transgender women in London who have set up a 'safe space' swimming club as they come together for their weekly swim. For some of the club’s older members, it had been 20 years since they had last felt brave enough to go for a swim.
The film’s joint directors, Cecilia Golding and Nick Finegan, recently commented on the challenges facing their film’s subjects, observing “Going swimming isn't easy when you’re transgender. In fact, simply being in a public space can be challenging for trans people. Changing rooms become daunting places, and revealing your body to a crowded pool might be the last thing you want to do. So, for them, swimming is a brave act of resistance.”
