{"id":436057,"date":"2020-06-17T07:00:44","date_gmt":"2020-06-17T14:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=436057"},"modified":"2020-06-18T12:30:43","modified_gmt":"2020-06-18T19:30:43","slug":"in-nadia-butterfly-pascal-plante-gives-swimming-the-hollywood-treatment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/in-nadia-butterfly-pascal-plante-gives-swimming-the-hollywood-treatment\/","title":{"rendered":"In \u2018Nadia, Butterfly,\u2019 Pascal Plante Gives Swimming the Hollywood Treatment"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Pascal Plante<\/strong> went searching for his next filmmaking project, he let two central pillars of his identity converge.<\/p>\n

Once, long ago (in Plante\u2019s mind, though only a couple of Olympic cycles ago in reality), Plante was a swimmer, earning a spot at the Canadian Olympic Trials for the 2008 Beijing Games. But as he reflected on his experience in the pool, the complicated and nuanced journey that he and many peers had traveled, he didn\u2019t see anything close to that represented in film.<\/p>\n

So, he resolved, he\u2019d just have to make that film.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe main idea was that swimming narrative fiction has never been done right,\u201d Plante told Swimming World<\/em>. \u201cIt\u2019s the film that I was missing, the film that the filmmaker in myself and the former athlete in myself both wanted to see.\u201d<\/p>\n

The result of Plante\u2019s labors is Nadia, Butterfly,<\/em> a feature film he wrote and directed. It stars Canadian swimmers Katerine Savard, Ariane Mainville<\/strong> and Hilary Caldwell,<\/strong> all first-time actors. The film didn\u2019t just scratch an itch for Plante but has resonated with others, earning selection to the hallowed<\/a> Cannes Film Festival, something Plante calls \u201cthe holy grail\u201d for filmmakers.<\/p>\n

The roots of the film\u2019s, and Plante\u2019s, success all trace back to the pool.<\/p>\n