Filmmaker Statement

I spent my childhood at Point Erin Pools, an inner city public pool in Auckland, New Zealand. I wanted to make a film about my experiences there, and explore this idea of a sexual awakening from a female lens. I wanted to examine gender and power, and it was important to me that no matter how small, my lead character had a “win” at the end of the film – she had to do something to get her power back, something that had been taken away from her. In the writing and making of this film I had many people (of all genders), disclose to me their own experiences of broken trust, and how they felt afterwards. It made me realise how little we talk about these earth shattering events that happen to us, even post the #metoo movement, that many of us still harbour a lot of shame around these things that have happened to us when we were kids. I hope Jade’s ending gives people the ending some of us never had.