Starting this project about Mercedes Gleitze, the first English woman who swam the English Channel in 1927, in his late teens, filmmaker Elliott Hasler conquered making a period piece decades before many of his colleagues might consider doing so. Hasler shares his thoughts on making Vindication Swim.

Given the amount of time spent working on the project (the best part of five years), Vindication Swim really evolved into a full-on passion project, not just for me, but for pretty much everyone who worked on it. When I first learnt of Mercedes Gleitze, someone I’m ashamed to admit I hadn’t actually heard of before, I did feel immediately connected to both her and her story. We both share the same hometown of Brighton on the south coast of England and were born exactly a century apart, Mercedes in 1900 and myself in 2000. So, in terms of what Mercedes and her story means to me, it’s really insurmountable to put it into words. I feel as though I’ve lived with her for all these years and it has certainly been quite a journey.

The title was there before pen had even been put to paper. It was one of those lucky ones where it was just perfectly suited to take the helm of this story and set up the narrative’s themes. I’m a big fan of the two word titles that form their meaning once you’ve seen the film; Pulp Fiction, Apocalypse Now, Rear Window, that sort of thing, and Vindication Swim just fit that mould nicely.

I spent about a year working on the script and during that time it went through many iterations. The first six months was spent mainly on research and then the second half of the year was when I actually set pen to paper and began to write. I was at university at the time and had quite a bit of writers’ block in the initial months of writing. Then I was just struck with a sudden brain wave and the bulk of the script poured out in about three months.

There was a lot of research I did into Mercedes’ life, as there was next to nothing available about her when I started writing. So, there were many hours spent trawling over archival material and old newspaper articles which came to form the backbone of the story. I, of course, added flourishes of artistic license here and there, but the swimming sequences in particular are about as accurate and authentic as can be.

Mercedes was such a famous icon back in 20s and 30s so there was a lot of contemporary material out there detailing the swims and the subsequent controversy she faced. But since she stopped swimming in 1933, she’s been largely forgotten. With the success the film has had it’s been wonderful to see this resurgence in her name. We’re actually in talks to have statue built for her looking out across the sea in her hometown.

Vindication Swim, like Gleitze herself, is very much an underdog. This is an independent film, made with a great deal of love and care, but with very little money in comparison to the other swimming films. Although that’s really less of a gripe and more a testament to the stories of these remarkable women and the need to tell them. I had the pleasure of meeting Diana Nyad at a screening of Vindication Swim in Long Beach and also genuinely enjoyed Disney’s swimming film Young Woman And The Sea too. I’m pleased these stories are now being celebrated on all levels across the filmmaking spectrum and that miraculously Vindication Swim has been able to hold its own again two titans of the industry.

I think a lot of that has do with Mercedes herself and the magic propensity her story holds for inspiring everyone who comes into contact with it. The cast and crew all fell in love with the story and the experience of recreating it for the silver screen. Everything was shot on the English Channel itself without the use of tanks, green screens or body doubles. So, for Kirsten Callaghan in particular who plays Mercedes, it was really a totally immersive performance that saw her train for four months in open-water swimming to totally embody the character of Mercedes and quite literally plunge herself into the cold waters of the English Channel.

Minuscule within the world of filmmaking. This was a proper indie, but one where we sought to break the confines of what an indie film has to be. I can’t stand the usual indie fare of two people stuck in a room battling against an external zombie apocalypse or something equally mind-numbing.

So, for Vindication Swim I wanted to immerse audiences in a world they’ve not experienced before and on a scale that films of a similar budget just don’t attempt. We pulled a lot of favours, begged, borrowed and stole to get this film made, but that’s the fun of indie filmmaking.

The production on this film was incredibly challenging and ended up being three years of shooting, as we navigated filming out on the English Channel, working with a shoestring budget, and the difficulties of shooting in the midst of a global pandemic. Anyone who’s spent time at sea will know how difficult shooting a film out there is. We really were up against all that Mother Nature had to offer.

The very first day of shooting all the cast were struck with terrible sea-sickness and Matt who plays the oarsman had three days of motion sickness afterwards. Before making the film I remember seeing an interview with Spielberg in which recalling his experiences on Jaws advised filmmakers to never shoot at sea. Well, seeing that just really made we want to do it all the more. The period aspect of the film also presented its own unique challenges, as it was very important to me that we never let the fact that we were an independent film get in the way of the value of the production as you see it on screen.

For instance, to get the classic 20s cars needed for the street scenes, we called round loads of local car clubs and asked the members whether they’d be interested in having their vehicles feature in the film. The only time we ever got a no was when we offered to pay for their gas.

Vindication Swim released theatrically in the UK and Ireland on International Women’s Day and broke the top 20 at the box office right away. It’s now enjoyed a four month run in theatres, playing in over three hundred locations across the UK, Ireland and Malta, which was totally unexpected and I feel is just a testament to the incredible story and inspiring spirit of Mercedes.

Our sights are now set on bringing Vindication Swim to the US. We hosted our debut screening in Long Beach at the Aquarium of the Pacific in July, which was sponsored by Councilmember Kristina Duggan and was part of the city’s build up for the LA 28 Olympics.

The main piece of advice I would offer to aspiring filmmakers is to simply go out there and make a film. Don’t waste your time with shorts, go straight in and do a feature. Realistically, you’ll be making a number of shorts before you start to get noticed, so I would suggest pooling those resources and making one singular feature-length film on a micro budget.

If you’re then able to get that film sold and distributed, you’re own your way to second feature. I know that’s easier said than done, but as someone who has now made and released two successful low budget indies without any industry backing, I know for a fact that it can be done.