Swimming Lessons

Swimming Lessons is a personal, reflexive film that follows a daughter of Chinese immigrants who yearns to understand her transoceanic family’s expressions of grief. During a summer visit to the home her parents left behind in Beijing, China, she tries to learn what they never taught her: how to navigate a heat wave, how to cook watermelon, and how to say goodbye.

Directed by Meloddy Gao

Director’s Bio: Meloddy Gao (she/her) is a Chinese American filmmaker, multimedia artist, and community organizer. Originally from Indiana, her work is shaped by her experiences growing up as the child of immigrants in the midwest suburbs. Formerly pursuing a career in environmental policymaking, Meloddy turned to storytelling after realizing the glaring gaps between marginalized communities and access to political processes of change. Her fascination for discovering humanity and humor in absurdity, along with her colorful visual style, form the basis of her storytelling. Meloddy is a recent graduate of the MFA in Social Documentation program at UC Santa Cruz. She serves as the Social Media Coordinator for the Asian American Documentary Network (A-Doc). Meloddy is excited to share her directorial debut SWIMMING LESSONS, a personal documentary about her transoceanic family’s lost goodbyes.

Plays in

Poetry of Time

The films in this showcase explore themes of age, memory, separation, and reunions; they capture the silent poetry of life, where time is sculpted through long, lingering gazes and stories unfold not in action, but in the spaces between. We celebrate the beauty and significance of time, and how it can be experienced in diverse and meaningful ways.

Award Nominated Shorts