WALKING UNDER WATER
POLISH TITLE: BADJAO. DUCHY Z MORZA
Borneo. Somewhere on the edge of the Sulu and Celebes Seas lives a tribe of ocean nomads: the Badjao. They live like fish, spending most of their life in water. Their children learn to swim before they can walk, and adults have mastered the art of free diving to perfection. They can walk and hunt on the sea bed holding their breath for five minutes and their eyes are adapted to focus underwater. They are happy people in the beautiful underwater world. This could be our story twenty years ago, but it is not any more. Today, the Badjao are pushed to extinction by modern civilisation. They have become strangers on their own waters with no IDs, no citizenship and no money. We call them illegal immigrants.10-year-old Sari and his uncle Alexan, the last Badjao compressor diver from Mabul island, set out to sea. Alexan teaches Sari dangerous fishing techniques and he shares with him his wisdom and a lifetime experience as a Badjao.
- GENRE:
- documentary
- COUNTRY:
- Poland
- RUNNING TIME:
- 76'
- YEAR:
- 2014
- DIRECTING:
- Eliza Kubarska
- SCRIPT:
- Eliza Kubarska
- DOP:
- Piotr Rosołowski, Lisa Strohmayer
- EDITOR:
- Bartosz Pietras
- MUSIC:
- Michał Jacaszek
- PRODUCTION:
- Braidmade Films
Eliza Kubarska »
Eliza Kubarska specialises in adventure filmmaking. She is an artist and director graduate of Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts, and Wajda School of Film Directing. Polish exploring alpinist and traveller. Author of award winning feature documentaries such as: “What Happened on Pam Island” (aka “Mountain Love Story”) set in Greenland, and “Walking Under Water”, about the sea nomads in Borneo, winner of Hot Docs Special Jury Prize. Her recent film is “K2-Touching the sky”.- 57th DOK. Leipzig, Germany, 2014 (screening)
- Festival dei Popoli - International Documentary FF, Italy, 2014 (screening)
- 19th Jihlava Documentary Film Festival, Czech Republic, 2015 (screening)
- 21st Hot Docs - Canadian International Documentary Film Festival, 2014 (Special Jury Prize)
- 11th Planete + Doc Film Festival, 2014 (Canon Cinematography Award Honourable Mention)
- Los Angeles Film Festival, USA, 2014 (Honorable Mention)
- 10th Zurich Film Festival, Switzerland, 2014 (competition)
- Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival, Brasil, 2014 (competition)
- Reykjavik International Film Festival, Iceland, 2014 (competition)
- 10th Camden International Film Festival, USA, 2014 (competition)
- Zurich Film Festival, Switzerland, 2014 (competition)
- Vancouver International Film Festival, Canada, 2014 (competition)
- 7th DHFest, Mexico, 2014 (competition)
- BFI London Film Festival, UK, 2014 (competition)
- Margaret Mead Film Festival, USA, 2014 (competition)
- 26th Palm Springs International Film Festival, USA, 2015 (The John Schlesinger Award)
- 29th Pärnu International Documentary and Anthropology Film Festival, Estonia, 2015 (competition)
- 9th Ânûû-rû Âboro Film Festival, New Caledonia, 2015 (competition)
- 9th GreenMe Global Festival, Germany, 2016 (Kids Jury Award)