While the Apocalypse – Blog

 ​Moodboard: POOLS

Revisiting seminal moments from their youth to amplify their resonance, directors Beltrán Gonzalez and Luca Werner capture the vivid nature of images that flicker through our minds in short film POOLS. Coming from different contexts – Gonzalez from Spain, and Werner from Germany – the two filmmakers connected over a shared affinity with water, both having sought escapism in submersion during their teenage years.

Moving from a small town to Barcelona at 18, Gonzalez discovered a network of pools overlooking the city – closed to the public, but accessible to those who found a way in. As a newcomer, these spaces became a refuge from his boredom, but frequenting the pools to jump into their waters led him to others doing the same – solidifying friendships in the city by seeking solitude away from it. In parallel, Werner reflected on the weekly swimming classes that presented a positive escape routine in his teens. An opportunity for distance that cleared the racing thoughts that flooded his mind, he found a simple, powerful ritual through the new rhythm enabled underwater. 

Shooting on 35mm film, Gonzalez and Werner allowed memories born underwater to guide the film, with the pools connected to their youth as a referential setting. Pieced together from imagery that evolved through the imagination, POOLS encapsulates the deep sense of feeling that comes over us in water, and the poetry of bodies disturbing its stillness, hoping that by meditating on memories, we can prevent them from fading. 

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