From Sarah Thomas and Jaimie Monahan to Sally Minty Gravett MBE, Pat Charette-Gallant, Sue Oldham, and Tita Llorens, women are currently doing things across the world’s oceans that boggle the mind. These women are swimming further in colder and rougher waters at older ages than anyone ever thought possible.
But dial back 100 years ago.
Think about swimming across channels in an era that bears little resemblance to the GPS technology, social media platforms, jet travel, modern swimsuit fabrics, and 21st century training methods that contemporary swimmers utilize and enjoy.
It could not have been easy or even moderately difficult.
It was unfathomably demanding from every perspective: physical, mental, emotional, financial, logistical.
On March 8th, cinemas throughout the UK and Ireland will show the highly anticipated film Vindication Swim about the life and hardships faced by channel swimming icon Mercedes Gleitze.
Gleitze faced societal pressures and attitudes that were imposed upon her simply based on her gender and the accepted assumptions of her era. But the same relentless determination to succeed that has enabled Thomas, Monahan, Minty Gravett, Charette-Gallant, Oldham and Llorens to succeed in channels and lakes was embodied by Gleitze and captured by Vindiction Swim director Elliott Hasler.
He explains, “It was our aim to really submerge the audience into the waters of the English Channel and in that way hope to pay homage to the spirit of this incredible woman. So everything you see on screen is real, all shot without the use of tanks, green screens or body doubles, all swimming scenes were shot in the English Channel.
I want audiences to feel as if they are swimming right alongside Mercedes on her incredible journey and share in her love affair with the water.“
Mission accomplished.
If modern-day women – or men – of any age or walk of life wants inspiration and are looking to motivation to develop hard-nosed grit, the film by Hasler delivers…in abundance and then some.
Cinemas
The list of cinemas that will show the film are as follows before the March 8th release:
- The Light – Addlestone
- The Light – Banbury
- The Red Carpet Cinema – Barton-under-Needwood
- The Light – Bolton
- Duke of York’s Picturehouse – Brighton
- Dukes at Komedia – Brighton
- The Light – Cambridge
- Picturehouse Clapham Q&A
- Derby QUAD
- The Silver Screen Cinema – Folkestone
- Regal Picturehouse – Henley Q&A
- Keswick Alhambra
- Depot – Lewes
- Tyneside Cinema – Newcastle Q&A
- Lighthouse – Newquay
- The Light – New Brighton Q&A
- The Light – New Brighton
- Cinema City – Norwich
- Number 8 – Pershore
- The Light – Sheffield Q&A
- The Light – Sheffield
- Old Market Hall – Shrewsbury
- The Light – Sittingbourne Q&A
- The Light – Sittingbourne
- White River Cinema – St Austell
- The Light – Stockport
- Plaza Cinema – Truro
- Regal Cinema – Wadebridge
- Dome Cinema Q&A – Worthing
- Dome Cinema – Worthing
- The Light – Wisbech
The Film
Vindication Swim stars Kirsten Callaghan who portrays Gleitze and John Locke who portrays her coach Harold Best.
Produced by Relsah Films with Sally Humphreys, Douglas McJannet and Simon Hasler and written and directed by Elliott Hasler, the film will be launched on International Women’s Day. Callaghan and Locke are joined by Victoria Summer, James Wilby, and Douglas Hodge. The film is scored by Emmy winner and Grammy nominee, Daniel Clive McCallum, with post-production completed at Warner Bros. De Lane Lea Studios.
For additional details of the film, visit here. The film website is here.
The Story
Vindication Swim follows Gleitze, who became the first British woman to swim the English Channel in 1927. The film depicts her upstream struggle in overcoming both the cold waters of the English Channel and the oppressive society of England in the 1920’s. However, after a rival comes forward claiming to have accomplished the same feat, Gleitze is forced into battle to retain her record and her legacy.
The Legacy
In 1933 Gleitze explained, “It’s having the willpower to endure the cold and not be disconcerted at the nearness of porpoises, dolphins and even sharks, to bear the pain of aching shoulders, knees and shins and to remain floating in the water with your arm seized with cramp and remain unperturbed when a large steamer passes too near. When you cannot have the hot drinks you’ve longed for and when an attack of sleep threatens to send you to the land of oblivion, but to have the courage to say I want to carry on.”
Gleitze (1900-1981) was a British pioneer and marathon swimmer from London who is a dual inductee having been voted by the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame as an Honor Swimmer in it Class of 1969 and the International Swimming Hall of Fame as an Honor Open Water Pioneer Swimmer in its Class of 2014.
For more information and updates, visit Vindication Swim Film here.
© 2024 Daily News of Open Water Swimming
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