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Bill Marsh can teach your kid to swim. In fact, he may be better at it than anyone else.
If you think that’s no big deal, consider this: “In the United States, drowning is the leading cause of preventable death for children ages 1-4.” That statistic is cited in A Swim Lesson, the Oscar-shortlisted short documentary that follows Marsh in the pool as he instructs a new class of tots. For little kids, the 8-day-long process can be traumatic – at first.
“They’re hysterical and then they’re vomiting, and then they’re crying, and then they’re running out of the pool,” shares Rashida Jones, the filmmaker and actor who directed the documentary with Will McCormack, a fellow actor-director. McCormack, Jones, and producer Emily Arlook all put their kids through Marsh’s program.
Jones’s son participated in the class in August 2020. “Definitely, there was high drama,” she recalls. “We had a kid who kind of cried the entire class and never stopped crying, but learned how to swim while he was crying, and I was just fascinated with the process. And then Will and our producer, Emily had their kids in class, and we were kind of obsessed with Bill’s teachings, his wisdom beyond just this application for swimming. Emily said, ‘You guys should make a documentary.’ We said, ‘Yeah, absolutely.’”
Adds McCormack, “It’s really a testament to a great teacher that we found ourselves completely present for this experience. Something that felt like it should be completely quotidian and mundane and ordinary suddenly became extraordinary.”
There’s a built in narrative structure to the class – a beginning, middle and end. At first, many of the kids are looking for any excuse to abandon the lesson before they’ve barely stuck a toe in the water. But Marsh remains resolute, never giving in to pleas, no matter how fraught with emotion. Parents can observe from a distance, but they’re not allowed to intervene.
“Excruciating,” is how McCormack remembers having to watch from afar. “It is human nature to want to prevent your kids from experiencing pain, but that’s not possible… This is the first moment in your life where your child is going through enormous pain and suffering, and you have to know that they’re going to walk through it and they’re going to be okay, and they’re going to get to the other side. And it’s really, really hard, but it’s part of the process of letting go.”
Whatever’s necessary to get a kid to take the plunge – hold their breath under water, come to the surface and move their arms to stay afloat – Marsh finds a way to do it, demonstrating an uncanny ability to intuit each youngster’s needs and emotional state.
“His love of what he does — it’s not like, ‘I love kids!’ He’s not like a clown,” observes Jones. “He’s interested in connecting with the depth of each individual’s soul and the beginning of their journey in this life.”
“He treats the kids with dignity and respect,” says McCormack. “I think he does that by acknowledging, ‘Any feeling you want to have going through this experience is fine. This is terrifying. Okay, you’re doing something you’ve never done before. It could kill you. It’s wet and it’s cold, and all of those feelings, whatever feelings you have are okay,’ but he’s very firm and very kind, and saying, ‘We’re going to do it anyway.’”
Beautiful photography – below and above the surface – shows the kids gradually master a skill that could save their lives. From abject terror and wailing comes a remarkable feeling for a child – Hey, I did this!
“The first time my son was so uncomfortable going under the water and he was crying, and he came up and he just looked at Bill,” Jones recalls. “He gave him a little kiss on his cheek. He was so grateful to him for sticking by him.”
While it’s not the focus of A Swim Lesson, the documentary offers in a subtle way what might be called a sociological lesson.
“Parenting philosophies change all the time based on where we are culturally, politically, all that stuff,” notes Jones. “I remember taking a class in college and there was something about how, before World War I, kids were supposed to be seen and not heard. And then people started losing their sons in alarming numbers. And so everybody started to hang onto their babies and coddle them and treat them differently. And we constantly see these cycles — the Boomers parent in a certain way, and then Gen Xers — we drank out of [garden] hoses and nobody knew where we were. And then millennials were given awards for everything. There’s all these patterns that emerge. But to me, what Bill does is he crystallizes something that doesn’t feel like part of any fad, which is there is inherent strength and determination that we’re born with, and we need somebody to make it safe and okay to push through that and push through our fear to get to the other side of that because that’s the only way we’re going to A, survive and B, feel good about ourselves, and C, create a pattern where we can deal with stuff. That’s the beginning of a long life of facing a challenge and deciding how you’re going to conquer it or not, or walk away.”
A Swim Lesson is presented by Los Angeles Times ShortDocs, American Documentary/POV Shorts, and Documentary+. Making the highly competitive Oscar shortlist elevates its visibility.
“It’s just such a nice shorthand — sorry, no pun intended — to get people to watch this movie because ultimately we want people to swim and we want people, whatever that little fear is, that even if you’re an adult and you’ve decided that you’re never going to swim, maybe you’ll be inspired by this movie and outside of the pool, maybe you’ll be inspired to feel a slightly more determination in the next difficult thing that you have to experience in your life.”
“Hopefully,” says McCormack, “the film reminds people, like Bill says, we’re so much more powerful than we believe.”
