Swim Team

Swim Team chronicles the rise of a competitive swim team made up of teenagers on the autism spectrum. Based in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, the cast of Swim Team is largely Latino and Asian, minorities that are underrepresented in competitive swimming and underserved in autism intervention and education. The film follows Coach Mike and three of the team's star athletes, boys on the cusp of adulthood as they face a future of exclusion and dependence. But everything changes when they come together as a team with parent coaches who train them with high expectations and zero pity. As the team vies for state and national Special Olympics championships, the film captures a moving quest for inclusion, independence and a life that feels winning. 

Includes a post-film conversation with Director/Producer Lara Stolman, and subjects Coach Mike and son Mikey, with a reception to follow.

LARA STOLMAN - Director/Producer

Lara is an award-winning television news and documentary producer whose work has appeared on NBC, MSNBC, AMC, VH-1 and The New York Times' website.

For Swim Team, her first feature documentary film, she was named an IFP Documentary Lab Fellow, awarded the New York Women in Film and Television Loreen Arbus Disability Awareness grant and was provided funding from the Aetna Foundation, Easterseals and the Karma Foundation.

Swim Team has screened at over 30 international film festivals, won over 10 awards, is in theaters now and will air on PBS' POV October 2.