now screening
When life is dark and you feel like you are losing your loving spirit, where do you go? Where do you go when everything hurts? Faced with expensive, debilitating surgery, director Robin Burke sought out aquatherapy in Louisville, Kentucky. Affirming and quiet, sorrowful and joyous, ripples and pools shares intimate portraits and perspectives, dissolving grief and holding you like your grandmother.
A small team filmed this buoyant independent documentary in just seven days, oftentimes completely submerged in the 92 degree saltwater. The film effortlessly guides us through the pool, into the shared experiences of pain from which you can’t look away, woven with immersive perspectives of kicking feet, cannonballs, and slow, supported movements.
Giggles and squeals echo as babies and toddlers learn to swim with their caregivers in the shallow end. The patient and firm voice of swim teacher, BJ, is intersected by an exuberant group of elders, who have become dear friends. They move gracefully alongside each other as we listen to them talk about how they’ve healed physically, how their bodies are changing because of the water, and how happy they are to have found hope and renewed health.
Fighting back tears, Abby’s dad Jeff speaks about his daughter’s autism diagnosis, his transformational journey of loving her, and their shared tender moments of play in the pool. Immersive underwater photography captures an elderly man exercising with barbells. We track a young girl walking with assistance and join Darryl, who is blind. Physical therapist, Mickey, is explaining her movements as she guides Darryl through therapeutic exercises to help him heal from a car accident. They both agree his walking has gotten much better.
ripples and pools features an original music score by four-time grammy winner Eugene Friesen and songs performed by Carly Johnson, Elizabeth Cotten, and Elizabeth Rogers with stellar accompaniments. Integrated with environmental sounds and water recordings, the music encourages us to breathe, grieve, and bear witness. ripples and pools embraces the hopeful and refreshed possibilities for healing ourselves, each other, and the world we occupy.
from the filmmaker
When we are in pain we are inward and alone. Weary. Diagnosed with osteoarthritis and uninsured, I was advised to prepare for knee replacement surgery. Out of necessity and a deep love of water, islands, and swimming I sought out the Home of the Innocents aquatherapy pool as an alternative space for healing. Daily practice ensued. Showing up, stretching, and spending weightless hours silently reciting affirmations, and stretching. Mobility, balance and flexibility improved.
There is an aspect of ‘enoughness' when you dip into 92 degree warm salt water-- the temperature of a beehive in winter. Everything softens, dissolves and begins anew.
Over time, it was the heartwarming sea of humanity; the rare and shared intergenerational experiences of positivity and compassion that sweetened my journey to recovery.
Quieting and affirming, sorrowful and joyous; ripples and pools honors and celebrates the healing powers of water, friendship, and compassionate care through the cycles of life.
Rilke’s consolation to a distraught friend speaks to the benefits and hopefulness of ripples and pools “Suddenly to be healed again and aware that the very ground of my being — my mind and spirit — was given time and space in which to go on growing” I find myself alert, transformed and seeing outward again.
