WATER BABY

Freediving couple William Trubridge and Sachiko Fukumoto introduce their baby to the place they call home - underwater.

We are creating an intimate portrait of New Zealand's world-famous freediver William Trubridge and his freediving partner Sachiko Fukumoto. The short documentary follows them as they welcome their first baby and introduce her to their underwater world.

William Trubridge and Sachiko Fukumoto are freediving royalty. William is an 18-time world record holder and current world freediving champion and his partner Sachiko is an actress and freediver.

The couple, who care deeply about protecting our oceans, are having their first child. Will their baby carry on their legacy of caring for our marine environment?

Unable to give birth in their favourite place, the ocean, the couple travel to William's family home in New Zealand to prepare for a water birth. While they wait, William challenges himself to swim the Cook Strait like a dolphin - a world first - in order to bring attention to our endangered Hector and Maui dolphins.

A few weeks later, the man who can hold his breath for over seven minutes, witnesses his partner give birth and his daughter take her first breath.

We are documenting the couple's journey as they return to William's childhood home in Hawke's Bay, New Zealand. The documentary will contain beautiful footage of the couple's life underwater and follow the story of their child's birth and her introduction to water.

We have been lucky enough to be selected for Loading Docs, a launch pad for short documentary makers. Their principal funder is NZ on Air with the support of the New Zealand Film Commission and Te Ma?ngai Pa?ho. The first step in the Loading Docs process is crowdfunding. Once we reach our first target, it will unlock $2,500 of the $5,500 production funding and later, post-production from Department of Post.

This is an all or nothing campaign! If we reach our target, we get funded. If we fail, then the documentary doesn't get made.

Any donation will be gratefully received. Even small donations add up! It will also help us if you share it on social. Share and spread the word!

This project is important to us. We aim to make a beautiful documentary that will inspire us all to love our oceans more and give them the respect they deserve. In order to do this, we need your help. Please consider becoming a Boosted supporter of WATER BABY to help us spread this message throughout the world.

Thank you. Arigato.

Kathy and Migiwa

THE TEAM

Katherine McRae - DIRECTOR

Kathy worked as an actress and theatre director before moving into television. She worked on Shortland Street as a dialogue writer, an actor and director and worked for South Pacific Pictures for seven years directing episodic dramas such as Nothing Trivial and Go Girls. In 2017 she directed on the second series of Filthy Rich. In 2012 Kathy and Migiwa Ozawa shot a short documentary for Tagata Pasifika on Will Crummer and his daughter Annie at a world music festival in Malaysia. Kathy's NZ Film Commission funded short film Abandon Ship has screened at New Zealand festivals including Toronto's TIFF Kids Film Festival 2016 and at the LA New Zealand Women's Film Festival. Kathy continues to direct theatre (Emily Perkins' A Doll's House 2017 and this year, Sam Brooks' Burn Her at Circa Theatre), teaches screen acting and screen directing, and has recently appeared as murderess Helen Milner in TVNZ's telefeature Catching the Black Widow and will appear in the upcoming feature film Vai.

Migiwa Ozawa - PRODUCER

Migiwa Ozawa has been producing television commercials between Japan and New Zealand since 1998. In New Zealand, she has built a solid reputation for establishing business relationships with more than 1,000 Japanese clients in production companies and agencies. Her work includes line producing, producing, pitching, marketing and research. Migiwa worked as a departmental coordinator and translator on The Last Samurai. She established her own production company called TUTU Company - "TUTU" means 'mischief' in Maori and 'harmonious' in Japanese and she works full of curiosity and enjoys 'TUTU'-ing around!