BAFTA-Longlisted ‘The Deepest Breath’ Director on Bringing the Beauty — and Danger — of Freediving to Screen

Alex Ritman
·7 min read
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The BAFTA film awards longlists, announced on Jan 5. ahead of the final nominations on Jan. 18, featured many predictable names. “Barbie,” “Oppenheimer” and “Killers of the Flower Moon” dominated, while the likes of “Poor Things,” “Maestro,” “Saltburn,” “The Zone of Interest” and “All of Us Strangers” all fared well. But away from the best film and acting categories, some interesting features not in the spotlight find themselves vying for voters’ attention.

Landing two longlist spots is “The Deepest Breath,” Laura McGann’s critically-lauded documentary exploring the mesmerizing world of freediving, the extreme sport in which thrill-seekers plunge to the bottom of oceans, often for several minutes, with only the air in their bodies to rely on, pushing themselves to the very edges of physical capability.

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As it sounds, the sport doesn’t come without some large degree of danger, and “The Deepest Breath” tells the story of two individuals — Italian champion freediver Alessia Zecchini and Irish safety diver Stephen Keenan — who find both their own purpose in life and, eventually, each other while a dark shadow of tragedy involving Keenan looms overhead.

Not only did the feature — which was produced by U.K. doc titan John Battsek and acquired by Netflix ahead of its premiere at Sundance 2023 — find a slot in BAFTA’s documentary longlist, but it managed to snare a space in outstanding British film, the only doc among the 15 (and only the second since the longlists were first introduced in 2021).

Speaking to Variety, McGann discusses where “The Deepest Breath” all began, learning to understand why freedivers risk their lives and working with what she describes as a “fleet of dolphins” to get the perfect underwater shot.

How did you come across this story? Do you have involvement with freediving yourself?

I didn’t know anything about freediving. But I did read about Stephen’s accident in the Irish press. The first thing I did was Google about freediving and I remember sitting in front of my laptop, watching these videos of people under the water, for three or four minutes with no breathing apparatus. And I thought, what is this? Physiologically, what is this? But also, it’s absolutely stunning visually, with these beautiful lights and beautiful blues. So I thought, that needs to be on the big screen.

I started speaking to people over the course of a few months, and the real piece that made me think, “OK, this could potentially be something special” was when I met with Peter, Stephen’s dad. He happened to live over the road from me in Wicklow, Ireland — a total coincidence! He handed me a little pen drive which had 12 hours of audio interviews with Stephen. I then had the pleasure of sitting down with these lovely big headphones listening to Stephen talk about the about the why and the what and the everything of his life, the reason why he stepped out of the grind. And that fascinated me, the strength of his north star. So I thought if we were able to get all the other ingredients together, this could be a beautiful film where Stephen actually tells his own story.

So what was the process of then getting the footage to tell the story?

It was years. But really, Stephen filmed himself a lot and Alessia (Zecchini) filmed herself. She was also filmed, from family stuff to freediving stuff. So it was amassed from both amateur and professional camera people from all over the world. There was around 70-something archive providers. I’ve said this before, but if somebody wanted to make a documentary about me, there’d be about three photos, whereas these people were documented constantly. So we could just be in the moment with them as they were experiencing it. With observational documentary, that’s always what you’re trying to do, to have it unfold on screen. And it’s unusual and hard to do that if you weren’t there to shoot it yourself. But that was always our goal.

“The Deepest Breath” plays out a little like a slow-burning horror. You know something bad has happened from the start and you’re pretty sure you know what it is, but don’t know exactly. What was the thought behind that storytelling tactic?

I suppose with any kind of sport where it is so close to the line and you’re always pushing the limits, accidents do happen. But more than that, what made me want to be in the moment was that these two people live in the moment. That was Stephen’s whole thing — live for today, you could die at any time. You’ve just got to think about what you’re doing with your life and be more meaningful in your decisions. And when you’ve got people pushing the boundaries of what they’re physically able to do, it lends itself to that kind of foreboding feeling.

I can’t be the only person to have spent much of the film watching the freediving thinking, “Why are you doing this? Why don’t you find a different hobby?” Was this a question you found yourself asking while making the film?

It was really clear to me watching people freediving why they do it. It’s like, you’ve got all the shit from daily life, it’s busy, it’s crowded, your mind is working on overdrive, and you put your face in the water and all of that just disappears and it’s quiet and it’s blue. One of the things that Alessia describes in the film is that is that freediving is like being sucked down to the bottom of the sea, and it’s like flying. And to her that’s the most beautiful thing. Perhaps to you and to me, it’s not. Why would you do that? But she sees it in a different way. Also, these people haven’t just woken up one day and gone down to 100 meters. They’ll do 10 meters and then 11 meters. And they’re aware of the risks and do their best to mitigate them. They all want to go home for their dinners in the evening. And they want to keep doing what they love at the same time.

“The Deepest Breath” is predominantly made up of footage, but did you get in the water yourself for some of it? 

I did. And it was such an amazing thing for me. I love being in the water and had the amazing opportunity to shoot an underwater film.

So did you actually give freediving a go? 

I did, and I went down three meters at Vertical Blue in the Bahamas. But I’d be in the water and they gave me this little blue floaty that I had to hold onto in case I floated away. Everyone else was a freediver, as was our cinematographer in Mexico. So I’d be on my floaty kicking away, and they’d go down and get a shot, come back up and show me, and I’d be like, “That’s brilliant guys, but would you mind just going down again and doing it slightly different?” So they’d all go down, get the job and come back up. It was like having a fleet of dolphins, just popping up and down and getting the shots. We were able to accomplish an awful lot more in the day than you normally would.

Now that the film’s long journey is coming to an end, do you have anything new you’re working on? Where do you go after making a documentary about one of the most dangerous sports on the planet?

I am starting a new project in the next couple of weeks. What I love is just getting my head into a project, thinking about one thing and getting into that flow. I don’t think I can really say anything about it, but it’s a story that speaks to me in the same way as “The Deepest Breath,” as it’s about people following their north star and ending up doing something really, really special. But it’s not in the water.

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