Swim Sistas

Swim Sistas is a poetic, visually stunning love letter to water, sisterhood, and the enduring strength of Black women across generations. Featuring the voice of Academy Award nominee Naomie Harris (Moonlight) as Mami Wata, part deity and part ancestral memory, the film flows across generations: from a young girl diving into joy, to Great Britain’s first and only Black female Olympic swimmer breaking historic barriers, to a woman learning to swim at 54, defying a legacy of inherited fear. It is a celebration of connection, resilience and hope, told through the lens of the rising tide of Black women reclaiming their place in the water, and in history.

Sustainability Notes:

"Swim Sistas was produced with sustainability in mind both in its practical execution and its wider ethos. The film was shot in a single day, significantly reducing energy use, travel emissions, and overall resource consumption. Contributors wore their own clothing, avoiding additional costume production, transport, and waste. The production operated as a paperless set, with all call sheets, schedules, and notes shared digitally.

Catering was sourced locally from our location Penshurst Place and Gardens, supporting local businesses and reducing food miles. The whole team shared cars to and from set, helping to minimise the carbon footprint associated with travel. Equipment and crew were kept lean and purposeful to avoid unnecessary excess.

Beyond the production itself, Swim Sistas is rooted in an ongoing environmental consciousness. I regularly participate in river and beach cleans (my next film is a project about water pollution!), and Swim Sistas' deep relationship with water naturally foregrounds respect for natural environments. By celebrating open water, swimming, and reconnection with nature, the film encourages audiences to value, protect, and care for our waterways.

At its heart, Swim Sistas offers a quiet but powerful call to action: to reconnect with the natural world, to see water as something precious and shared, and to recognise that community care and environmental care are deeply intertwined."