Documentary,
4:30 minutes,
No dialogue,
NS,
2008
Synopsis
Filmmaker Chuck Clark has been learning to portray some fascinating aquatic creatures. At the local pool one morning, he tried with Max O.
Creative team
Writer/director/producer: Chuck Clark
Personal statement
Chuck Clark says:
"I’ve known Max O with his family since he was a toddler but I haven’t really made much of a connection with him - until recently. Max has Down’s Syndrome. As a personality he seemed almost, submerged to me. (Little did I know . . . )
A recent study noted the similarity of brain activity in kids at play to that of creative or artistic activity in adults. In water I’ve learned how I can be weightless. I can fly and glide: up and down, and hover. Not as well as the aquatic life that I try to audition for my underwater videography studies sometimes, though with practice I seem to be keeping up more often.
For his 19th birthday I offered Max a one hour video recording documenting his alleged prowess at the local pool where he practices with a Special Olympics swim team, and plays. I kept up with this particular fish somehow. After I caught my breath, (while editing), I pondered the irony in how a person with a commonly recognized disadvantage in an environment where most of us are normally at a disadvantage can, through simple play, be transformed by this environment in such a joyful, expressive, almost spiritual manner."