“When I’m swimming, I feel normal. It feels amazing,” says one of the characters in a newly released trailer for Lara Stolman’s “Swim Team.” The award-winning documentary follows the Jersey Hammerheads, a New Jersey-based competitive swim team made up of teenagers on the autism spectrum.
The film centers on “three of the team’s star athletes, boys on the cusp of adulthood as they face a future of exclusion and dependence,” the doc’s official synopsis details. “But everything changes when they come together as a team with parent coaches who train them with high expectations and zero pity. As the team vies for state and national Special Olympics championships, ‘Swim Team’ captures a moving quest for inclusion, independence, and a life that feels winning.”
In addition to hearing from the athletes in the trailer, the boys’ parents are also featured. “There’s no resources for these children,” one mother says. “They’re just going to send him to Walmart so he can stock. It’s not what we want.”
“Swim Team” just snagged the Human Spirit Award at the Nashville Film Festival. It has screened at fests including DOC NYC, Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival, and Montclair Film Festival.
The project marks Stolman’s first feature doc. “When people ask me how I found the story of ‘Swim Team,’ I say it found me,” she explained in a press release. “Children with developmental disabilities are routinely excluded from community activities, often as early as preschool. Being told ‘no’ — your child can’t be in the regular class, your child wont keep up in little league, your child isn’t going to college — is something families caring for children with disabilities hear often.”
She continued, “Since children on the spectrum are particularly prone to drowning, swimming is a crucial skill but it’s not easy to find appropriate teachers and programs willing to take on a child on the autism spectrum. While exploring swim lessons for my own children, I stumbled upon the Jersey Hammerheads team in formation recruiting children on the autism spectrum and I was immediately struck by the energy and optimism of the families that were coming together to form the team.”
The entire creative team of “Swim Team” — its director, producer, editor, and DP — are all women.
“Swim Team” has been acquired by Argot Pictures and will have a theatrical run this July. The doc will screen on PBS’ “POV” in the fall.
