By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.3 cats
Country: france, israel, united_states
Year: 2005
Running time: 80
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0405461/combined
Chris says: “Surprisingly effective documentary about a 1930s woman’s swim team formed at Hakoah, a Jewish sports club in Vienna. Given the place and time, you can guess that the team did not survive into the 1940s. Fortuantely, its members did as they escaped Nazi-controlled Austria, individually settling all over the globe. Director Yaron Zilberman not only documents this era through vintage photographs and imaginatively chosen stock footage, but also by interviewing seven living members of the team and bringing them together for a reunion in Vienna. Now all in their eighties, they range from Hanni, a vivacious, outspoken academic to Anni, a psychotherapist who lost her sight a few decades ago. Better than most documentaries of this ilk, WATERMARKS both surveys the triumphs of a group of outsiders and delves into the pain of being ostracized without banality or clichi. When the women take a swim together at the film’s conclusion, it’s both simple and profound, and rather powerful. 4 cats”
Diane says: “In this docu, Director Yaron Zilberman reunites members of a Viennese swimming club of young Jewish women in the 1930s. In opposition to GUNNER PALACE, this short film can barely skim over many issues that would be well-served by a movie all their own, for instance: the history of competitive swimming and diving, the importance of friends when it seems that
the world hates you, aging bodies, the insidious persistence of antisemitism. 4 cats.”
Carolyn says: “I watched WATERMARKS last night and really enjoyed it. I’m having trouble remembering other documentaries I saw this year, but this will definitely be up there. I thought the editing between current footage of the Hakoah (Jewish) Sports Club members and archival footage when they were active in the 1930s was well done. The ladies, now in their 80s, really come to life and have unique personalities of their own. The women also talked about the general world situation in that era and as I’ve said, I love hearing what people think about different things and especially why. This film was satisfying in this way. 5 cats”