The ABC has commissioned Mint Pictures to produce ‘The Pool’, a two-part prime-time series which explores our identity through the prism of the pool.
Whether it’s the billabong or backyard pool, community pools, ocean pools or harbour pools, Olympic pools or Outback pools, Australians unite around the pool in all its iterations.
But it’s not just a hedonistic playground – beneath the surface there’s a surprising and untold story about how the pool has been a battleground where feminism was fashioned, racism was swept away, sexuality was liberated … and where sporting heroes born.
The pool is a repository of memories – good and bad – and a wellspring of stories: among them the Freedom Rides, which broke the barricades at Moree’s pool in 1965 and Thorpe, Klim, Callus and Fydler, who broke the Americans’ stranglehold on the 4x100m freestyle relay in Sydney in 2000.
Written by Christos Tsiolkas (The Slap, Barracuda) and directed by Emmy-nominated Sally Aitken, ‘The Pool’ – a commission by ABC Regional & Local – fuses sport, design, politics, nostalgia, factual and lifestyle in an archivally rich and visually stunning series. It has been funded by the ABC, Screen Australia and Create NSW.
