The relationship between a documentary filmmaker and their subject comes under close and decidedly emotional scrutiny in 7 Beats Per Minute, Yuqi Kang’s profile of champion free-diver Jessica Lu.
Lu moved from her native China to Hawaii in 2012 to pursue her dream of becoming a world class free-diver full time. Famous for her record setting dives and preternatural ability to hold her breath for an amount of time that would frighten most average people, Lu started winning championships, gaining sponsors, and striving to push her abilities right to the edge. But a near death experience at the prestigious Vertical Blue event in the Bahamas in 2018 left Lu with deep emotional trauma.
7 Beats Per Minute looks at Lu’s life and career and attempts to get back into the swing of things three years after she almost lost it all. That element of the story is interesting, but shares a lot of common DNA and a pivotal location with the previously released documentary The Deepest Breath. But what sets 7 Beats Apart is Kang’s unique relationship to her subject.
Kang is also a free-diving enthusiast of about the same age as Lu, and over the course of filming, the former champ pushily insists that the director be her safety diver, or the person tasked with bringing a diver to the surface as quickly as possible in the event something goes wrong or there’s a medical emergency. Wanting to remain objective, Kang wrestles with the idea of becoming a subject in her own movie, resisting it repeatedly (and honestly with good reason), offering up her thoughts via a philosophical Herzog-ian styled running narration.
7 Beats Per Minute starts off as a fairly standard sports documentary, albeit one with cinematography that lovingly showcases how Lu and Kang see the underwater world in all its surreal natural wonder. But the more Lu presses the issue upon Kang, the more 7 Beats Per Minute becomes a different sort of captivating beast with further reaching consequences.
Thursday, May 2, 2024 – 7:00 pm – TIFF Lightbox 1
Sunday, May 5, 2024 – 12:00 pm – TIFF Lightbox 2
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