A Guide To Breathing Underwater

A Guide to Breathing Underwater follows a person’s quest to find solace in his body. Using dance and gesture, shadow and light, we see him traverse through New York City, looking for his utopia.

When he finds an open space overflowing with air and water: an exhale. Finally, he can be still.

CONCEPT & PERFORMANCE / Donald C. Shorter
DIRECTION / Raven Jackson
CINEMATOGRAPHY & EDIT / Felipe Vara de Rey

  • Raven M Jackson
    Director
  • Donald C. Shorter Jr
    Concept
  • Donald C. Shorter Jr
    Performer
  • Felipe Vara De Rey
    Cinematography
  • Felipe Vara De Rey
    Editor
  • Project Type:
    Other
  • Genres:
    dance, smarthphone, iphone
  • Runtime:
    7 minutes 30 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    March 1, 2018
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Brooklyn Academy of Music
    New York, NY
    United States
  • Mobile Motion Film Festival

    Switzerland
    Grand Prize
  • Afrikana Independent Film Festival
    Richmond, VA
    United States
  • Toronto Smartphone Film Festival
    Toronto, CA
  • Cine-Corps Film Festival
    Paris, France
  • 92Y Mobile Dance Film Festival
    New York, NY
Distribution Information
  • Criterion Channel
    Distributor
    Country: Worldwide
    Rights: All Rights
Director Biography - Raven M Jackson

A native of Tennessee, Raven Jackson is an award-winning filmmaker, poet, and photographer. Her work often explores landscapes of indefinable experiences and emotions, as well as the body’s relationship to nature. A participant of Film at Lincoln Center’s Artist Academy during the 57th New York Film Festival, she is currently in development for her debut narrative feature, all dirt roads taste of salt, which has received support from Cinereach, SFFILM, IFP, Film Independent, Tribeca Film Institute, New Orleans Film Society, Kenneth Rainin Foundation, and Westridge Foundation. The film was also one of five selected for the Ikusmira Berriak Residency in San Sebastián, Spain, and was handpicked by Barry Jenkins for Indie Memphis’ 2019 Black Filmmaker Residency in Screenwriting.

Her short films Nettles and A Guide to Breathing Underwater are currently streaming on the Criterion Channel. Nettles is the winner of an inaugural Flies Collective Film Grant and had its International Premiere at the 66th edition of the San Sebastián International Film Festival. The film also won the jury award for Best Narrative Short Film at the 2018 Tacoma Film Festival and screened at Slamdance, Metrograph NYC, Palm Springs International ShortFest, and Bermuda International Film Festival, among others. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, TriQuarterly, CALYX, Kweli, Phantom Limb, PANK, and elsewhere. Her chapbook of poetry, little violences, is available from Cutbank Literary Magazine. Raven is a Cave Canem fellow and holds MFAs from New York University's Graduate Film Program and the New School's Writing Program.

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