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Cold Refuge
A film by Judy Irving 79 minutes, color, 2023
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| Synopsis
Cold Refuge is about the physical, psychological, and spiritual aspects of full immersion in the natural world: how – though it may seem counter-intuitive – swimming in cold water helps mitigate some of life's most serious challenges.
The diverse subjects include a wheelchair-using, paralyzed swimmer who faces fear by diving off a high pier; a Black man who was told by whites when he was 13 that “Black people don’t swim” (it took him 30 years to try); a blind man who tethers himself to a sighted swimmer; a woman with aggressive breast cancer who “swims to chemo;” a lawyer who reduces courtroom stress in the open water; and a young woman who communes with her late mother in San Francisco Bay, where they both swam together. Along with swimmers’ stories of adversity and resilience, the film’s marine mammals, birds, artwork, and a variety of open-water locations create a visual meditation on what it means to escape our abstract digital world in favor of what’s real. Watch the Trailer Reviews "The pleasure of watching Cold Refuge – which provides a collage of inspiring characters, an irresistible bowl of eye candy for jaded locals and a timeless tribute to the revitalizing power of nature – consists of floating from vicarious observer of other folks’ shivery activities to experiencing their triumph and head-clearing submersion alongside them." - KQED, San Francisco Links
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