Wild Water

Ben Davis provides an appealing tribute to wild water swimming and to the beauty of Calderdale, West Yorkshire.

There is an appealingly friendly tone to this documentary which was shot in Yorkshire. It's a film about wild water swimming and those who engage in it, but rather than taking a wider look at this popular activity and at various rivers and lakes used for that purpose, it concentrates on one particular spot where this occurs. That is Gaddings Dam, a reservoir in West Yorkshire. In the event this narrower focus pays dividends because it gives this film a real community spirit not often found on screen. It is entirely in keeping with this that instead of featuring a narrator as such it enables a range of swimmers to explain their enthusiasm and what they gain from taking the plunge in these cold waters. In passing the film is also a celebration of the Yorkshire landscape as seen from this high spot and we learn too of charity events being set up to raise funds, one such seen here being the January Daily Dip undertaken to benefit Crisis.

A film as localised as this might well have resulted in a work well meant but amateurish. Wild Water, however, is not like that at all for it is technically very accomplished. Ben Davis, the director, has opted to film in wide screen which suits the subject and enables the photographer, Geoff Brokate, to provide very well-judged images. Similarly, the editor, Jo Dale, has done a good job and the music by various hands including Davis himself is most apt. For viewers who would flinch from the very idea of participating in this kind of swimming, it may be difficult to appreciate the satisfaction that it seems to give but the contributors seen here clearly relish it and range in age from young newcomers to stalwarts like Vicky King who had her seventieth birthday during the filming.

To have undertaken this film was enterprising in itself and that is further illustrated by the way in which the production company, Paper Vision Films, is itself seeking out cinema screenings for it that will take place in Britain between March and May 2024. The one limitation that this film has is that it does not probe as deeply as it might have done. It would appear that the women swimmers outnumber the men and that many of the swimmers have found in this activity a healing force (several of them speak up honestly about anxiety and health issues in their lives that the swimming has helped to alleviate). This aspect brings to mind the recent Estonian documentary Smoke Sauna Sisterhood which dealt with an all-female sauna and revealed in depth both the companionship found there and the experiences that many of the women had undergone. That film had an impact that renders Wild Water shallow by comparison but I should acknowledge that to say that may be somewhat unfair since Ben Davis offers us a film that may never have been intended to go there.

As it stands the film’s modest running time is entirely apt although it is worth mentioning that at some screenings a question-and-answer session is also included. In any case regardless of my reservations about the range of Wild Water it is a film to be applauded. Famously the Powell and Pressburger film The Tales of Hoffman ended with the statement ‘Made in England’ and this film too could similarly have been proudly stamped but in this instance with the words ‘Made in West Yorkshire’.

Details of the screenings arranged can be found at   https://www.wildwaterfilm.net/#screenings 

MANSEL STIMPSON

Featuring  Jamima Latimer, Charlotte Derry, Vicky King, Sarah Duff, James Lowden, Clive Green, Emma Hutchinson, Miles Hutchinson, Rachel Toone, Jess Mortimer, Charlotte Cheney, Bob Cunningham, Ronika Cunningham.

Dir Ben Davis, Pro Pete Jenkinson, Ph Geoff Brokate, Ed Jo Dale, Music Charlie Sinclair, Tom Lonsborough and Ben Davis.

Paper Vision Films-Paper Vision.
52 mins. UK. 2023. UK Rel: 9 March 2024. Cert. PG.