The Pool director, Ian Darling.

Bondi Icebergs is the most photographed pool in the world. This is where generations of children have learnt to swim, where the diehard have braved the frigid waters of one hundred winters, where the young and beautiful have come to bond and bake in the hot sun.

The Pool is a stunning cinematic experience with a soundtrack that harks back to the 1960s and a cast of characters who each have a story to tell. It speaks to the enduring power of community and our collective longing to find it.

No matter your background or where you’re at – everyone is equal in their swimsuits.

Ian Darling is an award-winning documentary filmmaker with Shark Island Productions. He is Executive Director of Shark Island Institute and Chair of Shark Island Foundation.

He received the Byron Kennedy Award for innovation and the relentless pursuit of excellence at the 2018 AACTA Awards. Ian received the AFI/AACTA Award for Best Direction in a Documentary, has twice been a Walkley Awards Finalist, a winner of two Film Critics Award, and nominated for numerous Australian Directors Guild, Producers Guild, and AFI/AACTA awards.

His director and producer credits include The Pool, The Final Quarter, Paul Kelly – Stories of Me, The Oasis, Suzy & The Simple Man, In the Company of Actors, Alone Across Australia, Woodstock for Capitalists and Polly & Me. He was also a producer for The Department and Life After The Oasis and an executive producer of Fly, Paper and Glue, Allen v. Farrow, On The Record, The Fourth Estate, The Bleeding Edge, Unrest, Inventing Tomorrow, How to Change The World, 2040 and Wash My Soul in the River’s Flow.

Here, Ian writes about the making of his inspiring and stunningly captured documentary, The Pool.

The Pool will screen at the Adelaide Film Festival from Sunday, 27 October. Details here. 

The Pool will open in cinemas nationally from November 7. More details here.

The Pool.

“We wanted to make a film where there was just one central character. The pool itself. It just happened to have lots of arms and legs, and an endless well of stories to tell.”

Written by Ian Darling

For more than 20 years I’ve been making and supporting social impact documentaries, dealing with some of the most challenging topics of our times – racism, child protection and abuse, youth homelessness, climate change, domestic violence, and teenage incarceration. I have long believed in the power of documentary for social change. Films that can shape attitudes, behaviour and even laws in this country.

More recently, however, I felt it was time to make a shift and create a film that might bring great joy and happiness to audiences, one that might put a smile on their faces and allow them to dream a little of their own lives.

The Pool.

Maybe it was turning 60, or possibly a hangover from the relative isolation of Covid? But after a short diversion into playwriting and acting, I returned to the world of documentary, determined to make films that highlighted the more positive elements of our society. I wanted to make films that illuminated unknown pockets of our world, that would open our eyes to the beauty of our own environment, whether urban or rural. Films that could highlight our yearning as social creatures for connection and a sense of community.

I have typically made films where I have felt a strong connection. The Pool is one such film. While searching for the next story, I suddenly realised that Bondi Icebergs was right under my nose! Swimming is my main form of exercise. I swim about five times a week – in pools, bays and the ocean, even when the temperature plummets. That’s how much I love it!

ADVERTISEMENT Click to watch Your Love is Mine now!

My favourite place to swim is on the edge of Sydney’s famous Bondi Beach, at the beautiful Bondi Icebergs pool – the most photographed pool in the world. It is an ocean pool, totally open to the elements, cleaned once a week and filled by the waves of a rising tide. That is one of the greatest attractions for me – swimming through the waves crashing over the edge directly into the swimming lanes most mornings.

Despite being a regular swimmer I’m not a member of the Icebergs winter swimming club. I don’t have the discipline to do the 75 swims in 5 years over the winter months from May to end of August. But I do have enormous respect and admiration for those who do. Routine is a very powerful force and discipline, and we observe these patterns in the film. We see a club where people care for and respect each other. They laugh, they connect, they are free of judgement, they don’t care what you did or who you were – they simply share a connection, a love of swimming and the challenge of cold water. This is a place where everyone is equal in their swimsuits.

The Pool.

We set out to make a beautifully cinematic film, where every shot is a stunning portrait and a pleasure to watch. The filmmaking process opened our eyes to the raw beauty of the place, and how the smallest detail; a random wave, a spectacular sunrise, a massive storm, a perfect dive, an individual swimming stroke, the challenge of cold water, the fear of swimming, the healing powers of the water could help us create a story measured and told by the sum of the parts. Making this film also opened our eyes to the incredible cast of characters who populate this place. We didn’t want to make a traditional film where we followed a limited number of people in detail, rather we wanted to gain snippets from many characters who call the pool their home. But more than anything we wanted to make a film where there was just one central character. The pool itself. It just happened to have lots of arms and legs, and an endless well of stories to tell.

This is a time for gentle, poetic, meditative films to also find a place in the canon. We will always need documentaries that highlight injustice, human rights abuses, environmental destruction, and a myriad of other problems. But sometimes we need films that make us feel good about being human again too, and, perhaps, never more than now.

The Pool will screen at the Adelaide Film Festival from Sunday, 27 October. Details here. 

The Pool will open in cinemas nationally from November 7. More details here.