Posted in: Interview, Movies, Paramount Pictures | Tagged: Freediver, Paramount Pictures

Freediver Director on Why Documentary Is His Most Ambitious Work Yet

Director Michael John Warren spoke to Bleeding Cool about why it took all his previous experience to make the documentary Freediver work.

Michael John Warren is always looking for ways to challenge himself, similar to his latest subject, Alexey Molchanov, a professional freediver and Russian expatriate in exile looking to build on the family legacy of his mother and legendary freediver Natalia Molchanova, trying to set a world record in Paramount's Freediver. Based on the GQ article Secrets of the Deep by Daniel Riley, the documentary covers his time spending 2023 on a journey to reclaim his athletic glory and honor his iconic mother's towering legacy by attempting the most dominant season in the history of the deadly sport. His near-suicidal quest to set five world records in under four months brings him to the farthest reaches of the globe and the very edges of human performance. In the process, he's forced to reevaluate all the skills and beliefs on which he has built his entire life. Warren spoke to Bleeding Cool about how Warren's previous work helped equip him to tackle this ambitious and dangerous subject of the underwater daredevil in action and how he captured Molchanova's unique abilities as a physical ingenuity.

Director Michael John Warren on How His Previous Work Push Him to the Extreme for 'Freediver'

Bleeding Cool: What has your prior experience as a director helped guide you for this documentary?
I've done so much in my career with a single camera, which is very intimate, with low-budget profile pieces of famous people. I've made huge concert films, done on 35 mm camera shoots. I've filmed entire Broadway shows on a single take, which is also difficult and requires tremendous planning. All those chops are experiences that come to bear in this film. This is not a film you could ever wing it on. I had to have a mastery of a lot of different disciplines to pull this documentary off.

Thankfully, throughout my career, I've been able to explore many different things and learn many different things over the last 25 years or 20 years as a director because I was an editor for four years before I was a director. Even the knowledge I've amassed from editing was a massive advantage in making this film. Almost every project I did prepared me for what this was, and there is no question that this is the hardest film I had to make as a director. I used everything I've learned to pull this film off.

Do you feel like these extreme pursuits provide their unique rewards?

Absolutely! In a way, Alexey's almost a lonely person, right? Not a lot of people can do what he does. In fact, no one can do what he does now. It's an exclusive feeling to be that good at something so extreme that he's a very friendly person. He walks into the room; people go up and talk to him. He talks and is not necessarily socially awkward, but he's experienced things no one else can understand. That is probably something that makes him lonely. I'm sure it's something that makes him feel proud as well.

This is a life no one else can understand. That's why it's perfect for a film. My crew and I get to bring you into a world that's difficult to experience and, for pretty much everyone else on the planet, impossible to experience. It was a great adventure for us. The ocean itself is a huge, unexplored part of our planet. Alexey knows the ocean better than most people in the world. We got to be underwater with him and got to be on boats in the middle of nowhere with him. We got to swim with whales as a crew. It was an incredible experience. I don't think it has ever been a film like this. There are other films that try to put a similar experience but haven't done what we've done in putting you into the action, capturing it live, and certainly not at this quality. The story we're telling is unique, and the film itself is as unique as Alexey's story is.

Freediver is available on digital.

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