Cold Refuge (2023)
• April 16th, 2023 • 1h 19min
Documentary
Overview
Cold Refuge is about the physical, psychological, and spiritual aspects of full immersion in the natural world: how, though it may seem counter-intuitive, swimming in cold water helps mitigate some of life’s most serious challenges. The film’s diverse film subjects include a wheelchair-bound, paralyzed swimmer who faces fear by diving off a high pier; a Black man who was told by whites when he was 13 that “Black people don’t swim” (it took him 30 years to try); a blind man who tethers himself to a sighted swimmer; a woman with aggressive breast cancer who “swims to chemo;” a lawyer who reduces courtroom stress in the open water; and a young woman who communes with her late mother in San Francisco Bay, where they both swam together. Along with swimmers’ stories of adversity and resilience, the film’s marine mammals, birds, artwork, and a variety of open-water locations create a visual meditation on what it means to escape our abstract digital world in favor of what’s real.
Make sure to check your pop-up blocker!!
Trailer
Similar Movies
FLOAT!
Released on: 2023-01-11
Documentary, Comedy, Family
With depth, intimacy, and humor, FLOAT! captures filmmaker Azza Cohen's magnetic grandma’s life-affi...
The Bridge
Released on: 2006-10-27
Documentary
The Bridge is a controversial documentary that shows people jumping to their death from the Golden G...
What You'll Remember
Released on: 2021-07-16
Documentary
Homelessness in the United States takes many forms. For Elizabeth Herrera, David Lima and their four...
Forever, Chinatown
Released on: 2016-04-02
Documentary
Forever, Chinatown is a story of unknown, self-taught 81-year-old artist Frank Wong who has spent th...
Mondo Topless
Released on: 1966-11-17
Documentary
Completely topless. Completely uninhibited. The craze that began in San Francisco is now exploding a...
Dean's Last Ride
Released on: 2025-04-17
Documentary
A veteran Taxi driver struggles to find passengers in San Francisco and wages a spiritual war agains...
Touch the Wall
Released on: 2014-11-15
Documentary
Swimming superstar Missy Franklin was destined for greatness at an early age, but it wasn't until th...
The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill
Released on: 2003-10-09
Documentary
A homeless musician finds meaning in his life when he starts a friendship with dozens of parrots.
Beyond Limits
Released on: 2025-03-07
Documentary
A compelling British documentary following ten amateur athletes as they train for and compete in Iro...
Dulais Valley
Released on: 1965-05-01
Documentary
Master baker, owner of Duffryn Bakery, Onllwyn, turns his hand to film-making and captures community...
Dead Kennedys: Fresh Fruit for Rotting Eyeballs
Released on: 2005-10-25
Documentary, Music
Fresh Fruit for Rotting Eyeballs features a brief history of the Dead Kennedys' early years up to th...
Education Week
Released on: 1925-01-01
Documentary
Young scholars get busy for Newcastle-on-Tyne's 'Education Week' in the tour of Tyneside classrooms.
The Pool
Released on: 2024-11-07
Documentary
Bondi Icebergs is the most photographed pool in the world. This is where generations of children hav...
Crumb
Released on: 1994-09-10
Documentary
This movie chronicles the life and times of R. Crumb. Robert Crumb is the cartoonist/artist who drew...
The Day The Series Stopped
Released on: 2014-10-12
Documentary, TV Movie
On Oct. 17, 1989, at 5:04 p.m. PT, soon after Al Michaels and Tim McCarver started the ABC telecast ...
The Times of Harvey Milk
Released on: 1984-10-07
Documentary
Harvey Milk was an outspoken human rights activist and one of the first openly gay U.S. politicians ...
The Rejected
Released on: 1961-11-09
Documentary
The Rejected is a made-for-television documentary film about homosexuality, the first of its kind to...
Silicon Valley, Baby.
Released on: 2020-01-30
Documentary
Finnish award-winning barista Kalle Freese travels to San Francisco with his girlfriend to start an ...
Be-In
Released on: 1967-02-01
Music, Documentary
Captures the spirit and essence of the great San Francisco Human Be-In of January 14, 1967. Ten thou...