Ama-San
A dive, the noon sunlight cuts through the water. The air in both lungs will have to be enough to rip the abalone from the rocks at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. With no aid from air tanks or any other tools to enable underwater breathing, the body as a whole is tested to its limit. In Wagu, a fishing village in the Ise Peninsula, Matsumi, Mayumi and Masumi dive every day, not knowing what they'll find. Underwater, their delicate bodies turn into those of sea hunters. The Ama-San have been diving like this in Japan for over 2000 years.
Cláudia Varejão was born in Porto, Portugal and studied film in the Artistic Creativity and Creation Program offered by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, alongside the German Film und Fernsehakademie Berlin, and in São Paulo’s International Film Academy. She also studied photography at AR.CO in Lisbon. She directed the documentary short film Wanting and the fictional short film trilogy Weekend, Cold Day, and Morning Light.
Selected: Wanting (2005), Weekend (2007), Cold Day (2008), Morning Light (2012), In the Darkness of the Movie Theater I Take Off My Shoes (2016), Ama-San (2016)
