Sea Donkey Delivers
Courtesy of James Harrison, Guernsey.
Sea Donkey, a film that followed Adrian Sarchet’s attempt in 2015 to cross the North Channel between Northern Ireland and Scotland, launched to a sell-out premiere in Guernsey’s main cinema on November 8th.
Protagonist Adrian Sarchet described the premiere, “The public’s reaction to the film was beyond our wildest expectations. Laughter, tears, enraptured silence and roaring approbation at different points in the film – and a standing ovation at the end.”
Fans started to purchase DVDs/Blu-Rays and downloaded the film via the Sean Donkey website [here].
“We opened a second night at the same cinema in Guernsey. There are only 17 seats left. We have total strangers, both swimmers and non-swimmers, coming back a second time.”
The response to the film has been overwhelmingly positive: “[The film is] totally absorbing, funny, shocking, emotional and inspiring…some of those final scenes will stay with me for a long while.”
ITV Channel presented the film here.
Sea Donkey was also nominated for the 2017 World Open Water Swimming Offering of the Year among the following offerings:
1. 48 Braçades by Miquel Suñer (Spain)
2. Blue Journey Dangerous Waves Project with Bruckner Chase (USA)
3. Global Swim Series by Rob Kent & Dylan Kent (Canada)
4. LongSwimsDB by Evan Morrison (USA)
5. New York Open Water by David Barra, Rondi Davies & Alex Arévalo (USA)
6. Open Water Swim Academy by Dan Simonelli (USA)
7. Outdoor Swimmer by Simon Griffiths (Great Britain)
8. Sea Donkey with Adrian Sarchet (Guernsey)
9. Shark Bait by Dr. Seán O’Connell (Bermuda)
10. Swim Argentina by Matías Ola (Argentina)
11. The Channel of Bones with Toni Enderli (South Africa)
12. Travessia do Leme ao Pontal by Adherbal de Oliveira & Renato Ribeiro Barbosa (Brazil)
The film was nominated as follows: Sea Donkey tells the story of Adrian Sarchet and his adventure across the North Channel. The documentary, directed by James Harrison, celebrates the depth of the human spirit of an ordinary man, an advocate from Guernsey, who took to the open water with a passionate desire after more than a decade of lawyering. As he closing in on becoming one of the few people who have completed the Oceans Seven, Sarchet is now far beyond the poor health he had previously existed with. Sarchet transformed himself from a law-obsessed professional to a broad-minded adventurer. Through riveting interviews with the protagonist, pilot and crew amid beautiful imagery between Northern Ireland and Scotland, Sarchet’s personal journey is an improbable, mind-bending and astonishing path to becoming one of the world’s most adventurous extreme athletes. For its inspirational message that the documentary delivers, for showcasing the unlikely transformation of an advocate to a risk-taking channel swimmer, for sharing the challenges and joy so prevalent in the sport of open water swimming, Sea Donkey is a worthy nominee for the 2017 World Open Water Swimming Offering of the Year.
To register and vote on the WOWSA Awards and the 2017 World Open Water Swimming Offering of the Year, visit here.
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