Project Detail

Freedom Swimmer

Synopsis

FREEDOM SWIMMER documents a mass migration story from the 20th century, which is relatively untold in the Western world— and offers context for a city in turmoil, today.
A granddaughter asks her grandfather to recount his journey from China, swimming to Hong Kong in the 1970’s.
One of two million mainland residents who swam across the southern sea border. Many others died trying or were captured and sent to labour camps. He was one of the lucky ones.
From the 1950’s to 1980’s Hong Kong was a symbol of freedom to many Chinese, glimpsed across the water. The grandfather, like many others, went on to have a successful life in Hong Kong and was part of the working-class movement that helped transform the city into a financial success story.
FREEDOM SWIMMER explores the effect of past cultural trauma, exploring a new perspective on the current situation. It reflects the depth of a symbol that is ‘freedom’ - that Hong Kong both represents and holds onto so tightly.
On a wider-scale, this is a universal story of the dispossessed— what it takes to flee your country, what it means to fight for freedom, what it is like to leave everything in hope of liberty.

Details

Year
2021
Type of project
Shorts
Running time
15 min
Format
Digital
Director
Olivia Martin-McGuire
Producer
Brooke Silcox
Co-Producer
Ron Dyens, Olivia Martin-McGuire
Editor
Anonymous
Screenwriter
Olivia Martin-McGuire
Director of Photography
Anonymous
Production Designer
Anonymous
Sound
Anonymous
Composer
Pierre Oberkampf
Principal cast
British Canontese actors - anonymous

Production Status

Production Company

No-Thing Productions

17 Grenville Road
Gooseberry Hill
Perth
Western Australia 6076
no-thing.co

Sales Company

Page updates

This page was last updated on 12th May 2025. Please let us know if we need to make any amendments or request edit access by clicking below.

See also

You may also be interested in other relevant projects in the database.

Pebble Spiral created by Jim Ede for Kettle's Yard in 1957 a way of living : kettle's yard

Director: Chris Vile

Year: 2026

Henry Moore beside a pebble. Barbara Hepworth next to broken china. No labels. No velvet ropes. No explanation. Art stripped of its usual deference and curatorial esperanto. Art revealing its true power. Art for all. ‘You want to look at how it is and marvel at the ordinariness of it and the extraordinariness of it all’ (Lubaina Himid) Kettle’s Yard is a small, humble home. Created by a couple, Jim & Helen Ede, who, with little money, became supporters and friends of many of the most important artists of the 20th Century. Jim survived the trenches of the First World War but despaired of a society that could allow such horrors. His is a quiet, very British, revolution that has a powerful resonance today. Antony Gormley, Edmund de Waal, Cornelia Parker, Ai Weiwei and others, passionately explain why this humble place is so important to them and why Jim’s radical ideas are vital for us today.

fully mature, reconstructed reef,  Salisi' Besar Reef, Indonesia Reef Builders

Director: Stephen Shearman

Year: 2025

For the last eight years, off a remote island in Indonesia, a remarkable experiment has been carried out: a once desolate underwater rubble-field of broken and dead coral has been carefully replanted and regrown back to full health. In 2025, the reef on Selasi Besar is the largest rebuilt reef on earth. It is an unprecedented success. Selasi Besar sends a message of hope to the world. But can the success in Indonesia be replicated and rolled out on a global scale? For this experiment to make a difference it has to work everywhere. Official Selection, SXSW 2025 Official Selection, Quad Cities Environmental Film Series 2026 [WINNER Special Jury Award for Environmental Action] Official Selection, Innsbruck Nature Film Festival 2026 Official Selection, One Earth Film Festival 2027

Contact sheet showing a photographer with a large format camera Edge is Everything

Director: Marisa Privitera Murdoch

Year: 2026

Edge is Everything is a love letter to photography and to the art of truly seeing. For over 30 years, Thomas Joshua Cooper has photographed the furthest edges of land with a 19th century camera. His work bears witness to landscapes transformed by climate change while recovering forgotten histories of migration, exploration and departure. Cooper draws on his Native American heritage and an extraordinary archive of audio interviews he recorded in the 1970s with photography’s most influential figures, including Ansel Adams, Man Ray, Imogen Cunningham and Paul Strand. These previously unheard tapes create a rare intergenerational conversation about photography and artistic practice. The film also examines the cost of an uncompromising creative life. His wife and adult daughter reveal the impact of his prolonged absences and challenge the mythology of the solitary artist. At a time defined by speed, distraction and instant images, Edge is Everything asks what might happen if we slowed down long enough to fully observe. This question has guided Cooper since childhood, when he was taught by his Native American elders: “Each of us has an eye that sees and a seeing eye. When you learn which is which, you will have begun to become human.”