Daughter of the Sea

“Daughter of the Sea,” an 18-minute documentary sponsored by Patagonia Films, reframes success in our modern age as joy and connection with nature. After Jaeyoun Kim, a native of Mara Island in South Korea, moves to Seoul to pursue corporate work, she struggles with depression and suicidal ideation. She decides to return home to tiny Mara Island, where generations of women in her family have worked as haenyeo, free-diving “mermaids” who harvest seafood from the ocean floor for a living. Weaving Kim’s narrative with pensive, deeply immersive dive cinematography, directors Nicole Gormley and Nancy Kwon tell a story of homecoming, and how nature can bring us back to self when we’ve lost our center.