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(Official Sponsor of The Blacks Swimming Association) TheBSA.co.uk

LONDON –The documentary and the feature film A Film Called Blacks Can't Swim. 

A FILM CALLED BLACKS CAN’T SWIM is a feature film documentary directed by award-winning filmmaker Mysterex (MO-AM) about a black Briton whose fear, anxiety and struggles with not being able to swim and drowning is dramatised as he battles through the stereotypes, stigmas, and myths set by society. 

Ed Accura said “this depicts my turbulent journey with swimming, I was brought up to understand that water safety meant staying away from water. After all, if you don't get into the water you can’t drown I was told"  This highlights the issue with the disproportionate amount of black people that can’t or don’t swim.  

The film depicts Ed Accura (Frank Awuah) as a black British man who after watching an upsetting news report on bad weather and flooding, develops an acute phobia with water. His anxiety with not being able to swim and irrational fears of drowning push him into buying a life jacket which he wears everywhere he goes. Ed is torn between his friends who try and encourage him to learn how to swim and society who dramatically dampen his confidence with stereotypes on black people and their inability to swim.  The film combines acting with real interview footage of various members of the community voicing their thoughts on the subject. 

Swimming and water safety is an essential life skill and everyone should have the opportunity to learn.

The aim of the film is to enable us to speak openly about this generation-long issue of a disproportionate amount of black and ethnic minorities not swimming.  

With the swimming's governing body SPORT ENGLAND reporting that 95% of black adults and 80% of black children in England not swimming, while the last recorded data from 2018 showing that less than 1% of registered competitive swimmers with Swim England identify as black or mixed-race, it’s my duty to make this film available by officially releasing it and sharing my personal swimming journey to all. 

Let's help eradicate the issue as well as encouraging more people from all communities to learn to swim and thus reducing the number of deaths by drowning.