Filmmakers Drea (pronounced Dray) Cooper and Zackary Canepari have produced a collection of three- to ten-minute video vignettes called California Is a Place. One of their films, the ten-minute long “Aquadettes,” was chosen for the Short Film program at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.
From Boom, A Journal of California: “Set in a southern California retirement community called Leisure World, ‘Aquadettes’ tells the story of 76-year-old former nurse Margo Bauer, who takes up medical marijuana to ease the nausea of multiple sclerosis, enabling her to continue with her synchronized swimming team. ‘This year is the first year I’ve been aware of my disease in the water,’ Bauer says. And while her voice contains the aches of age and illness, the camera captures a gaggle of tan, elderly ladies in ornate swim caps turning graceful flips in chlorine-blue water.” See the video here.
