Main Menu

The Deepest Breath

Directors

Laura McGann

Executive Producers

Bart Layton, Ben Cotner, Emily Osborne

Producers

John Battsek, Sarah Thomson, Jamie D’Alton, Anne McLoughlin

Editors

Julian Hart

Cinematographers

Tim Cragg

Champion freediver Alessia Zecchini fell in love with the sport as a child growing up in Italy, astounding coaches with her raw talent and determination in pool swims and open water contests before she was even old enough to legally compete. Irish adventurer turned expert safety diver Stephen Keenan, meanwhile, was raised near the sea, but as a young man he set out on a quest to find himself, traveling across Africa before landing in Dahab, Egypt and establishing a dive school. Despite their very different paths, the two would meet at the pinnacle of the competitive freediving world, discovering a shared passion for pushing their limits and forming a powerful relationship that felt like fate.

 

From director Laura McGann, this thrilling documentary takes a look inside one of the most dangerous sports in the world, using everything from raw underwater dive footage to childhood home movies to chronicle Zecchini and Keenan’s lives and careers. The bond between them propels the film’s emotional journey into the stunning, silent depths of the ocean, a breathtaking place unseen by all but the fortunate few – where exhilarating accomplishments and unavoidable risks await.

 

Courtesy of Netflix

TheDeepestBreath_L.McGann

Laura McGann

Director, The Deepest Breath

Laura McGann lives by the sea in County Wicklow, Ireland, with her wife and their daughter. Her interest in film was piqued at a young age by both her grandfather who was an avid filmmaker and her grand-uncle who ran cinemas. She started making films and producing theatre when she was 15 and went on to study film in Ballyfermot, Dublin, and then to pursue a master’s in documentary filmmaking at Hope University, Liverpool.

Her first festival short The End of the Counter saw her revisit her grandfather’s films from the 1960s about the moment the first supermarket arrived in Ireland. Made with the support of the Irish Film Board, the film won several awards including the best short documentary at the Galway Film Fleadh and played at international festivals including Boston Independent Film Festival, Dublin International Film Festival, and Belfast Film Festival. Laura has worked in Ireland and abroad shooting and directing over 20 documentary series for RTE, SKY, PBS, BBC, Lonely Planet, and UTV.