Jessea Lu is a freediving champion who arrived in the United States from China on a student visa not knowing anyone nor having much money. Through rigorous training and great drive she became a freediving champion quite remarkable for both a woman and an Asian.
Freediving champion I am not but I have done my fair share of snorkeling and spearfishing the latter being a type of freediving. Freediving relies on the breath as opposed to tanks supplying oxygen for scuba divers. Freediving competitions involve diving to depths and then returning without having passed out. No crowds are in the stand as this is primarily a individual sport supported by coaching and safety teams.
If you are expecting a rah rah flag waving and uplifting story you will not find it in “7 Beats per Minute”. Lu is a champion and we can applaud her efforts but the documentary goes further and gets messy. Lu did not have a happy childhood. In fact it was miserable and it left great gaping scars which catch up with her and temporarily derail her. In this misery and loneliness freediving was a temporary emotional salve.
In 2018 while attempting record dive at Dean’s Blue Hole in the Bahamas Lu reached record depth but passed out before returning to the surface. Revived she survived noting this as an out of body experience with so much attention and care being shown to her she felt the experience a remedy for her broken soul. I suppose she felt part of a loving family unlike her childhood where at one point at 6 years of age her mother said she would be better dead than alive. This need to be in a caring family caused tension between Lu and filmmaker Yuqi Kang a boundary Kang felt uncomfortable with.
Lu realized her past demons were impeding her performances and she reached out to her verbally abusive mother receiving a rather weak apology which Lu took as a “huge reward”.
Moral of the story? Success in sport and life requires emotional balance. Misery may propel you to excellence initially but once that excellence is reached that broken soul you have may catch up with you.
And Lu has a PHD in pharmacology.
Tremendous underwater photography and soundtrack.
The documentary is a co-production between The National Film Board of Canada and Intuitive Pictures.
You can see the trailer here https://vimeo.com/908758718
It screens at HOT DOCS in Toronto on 26April and 2/5May2024.
RKS 2024 Film Rating: 88/100.
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