Former Iowa swimmer hoping to make waves with documentary

IOWA CITY - A former University of Iowa swimmer is using his talents in a different way to produce a feature-length documentary.

Brian Tremml is hoping 'The Water is My Sky” is the 'first movie about the sport of swimming itself.

'There's been a couple of documentaries produced about specific people within the sport, but there's never really been one that's approached it from the way we want to.”

Tremml started filming for the documentary with Kiel Nowakowski in March 2013. The two have turned to the website Kickstarter to help fund the rest of the film.

'We've been working on it for a year and a half now,” said Tremml, a native of Holland, Mich., who specialized in the butterfly and individual medley at Iowa. 'So this isn't something we just threw online.

'I have been personally financing the film up to this point. So that's why we're hoping to reach out to the swimming community and the community here (in Iowa City), too.”

Tremml and Nowakowski have more than 250 'backers” who have pledged more than $22,000 to their Kickstarter program, almost halfway to their goal of $50,000.

'It's really starting to catch fire,” Tremml said. 'I keep getting messages from all around the country and a couple of international ones, too, that I don't even know how to read. It's been really cool that the documentary is starting to spread and we're just really excited for it.”

If the two don't reach their goal on Kickstarter by May 14, Tremml and Nowakowski receive nothing.

'It's an all or nothing kind of deal,” Tremml said. 'It's kind of stressful, but (Kickstarter) has worked in the past for other films.”

Tremml became interested in filmmaking around the same time he started to become a serious swimmer in middle school. Once he received his degree in Cinema and Comparative Literature, he knew it was time to create a film no one has ever done before.

'We're trying to make this movie, more so in a broad sense,” he said. 'What is the swimming world like for the people who don't know it and, for the people who do know it, we're hoping they can be like ‘yeah, this is exactly what it's like.' So we're trying to balance those things for sure.”

Tremml credits other filmmakers in Iowa City who have been willing to guide and help him get this project off the ground.

'We really pride ourselves being from Iowa City, just the corridor in general,” Tremml said. 'We think there is a lot of great film making that goes on here that goes unnoticed or is just starting to get noticed. So it's been awesome to direct all these fans from around the world and let them know where it's coming from.”

The film plans to look at the career of 2000 Olympic bronze medalist Tom Wilkens and follow 2012 Olympian Connor Jaeger. Both are from the same hometown in New Jersey.

'We're also very interested in featuring some up-and-coming high school swimmers to get a taste of someone who maybe isn't going to the Olympics but are just as dedicated to the sport as an Olympian would be,” Tremml said.

Go to www.kickstarter.com/projects/113969129/the-water-is-my-sky-a-documentary for details about the project.

l Comments: whitney.blakemore@thegazettecompany.com