NARCOSE

Deep water freediving exposes its practitioners to a form of narcosis, which induces several symptoms, among which a feeling of euphoria and levity that earned this phenomenon its nickname of “raptures of the deep”. The short film relates the interior journey of Guillaume Néry, the apnea world champion, during one of his deep water dives. It draws its inspiration from his physical experience and the narrative of his hallucinations.

JULIE GAUTIER

 

Born in 1980 on the French island of “La Réunion” in the Indian Ocean. She started apnea (free) diving with her father who was a spear fisherman. She is the actual French record holder in constant weight (-68m!). Together with her husband, Guillaume Néry, Julie directed “Free Fall” in 2010. This huge success (over 13 million views on YouTube) gave her enough self-confidence to start a proper film career. She works now as an under-water model, director and camerawomen.

• The audience award at the World Festival of Submarine Images in Marseille 2014

I have lived with Guillaume for the last 7 years and we have just had a baby girl together. I thought I knew everything about him and his views on apnoea and freediving, but a few years ago he started sharing with me his underwater bouts of hallucination, intimate confidences that he had never shared with anyone before: NARCOSE was born in my mind.

Short Competition 2015