Can’t Float

Writer/director Dave Schilling adapts his 2016 article for The Guardian with Can’t Float — the story of a 30-something Black man named Dave (Baron Vaughn) that decides to conquer his fear of drowning to both prove a point to himself and the world. The only problem is, the class he’s signed up for is full of children. Happy, smiling, splashing children with none of the crippling anxiety that defines adulthood. Worse yet, Dave has to run a gauntlet of doubters who subscribe to the awful stereotype that Black people not only can’t swim, but shouldn’t.
Dave’s instructor, Emily (Brooke Nevin) challenges him to understand why learning to swim as an adult is so important.
Can’t Float is about confronting institutionalized prejudice, reconciling with the youth we’ve lost and figuring out how to grow into the adults we all are meant to be.