“When we return to the water, a primitive reflex reignites, making us all natural-born freedivers.” So begins 7 Beats Per Minute (2024), a film that sees freediving not only as an extreme sport that challenges physical limitations, but also a transformative practice to confront our origins. In her latest feature documentary, director Yuqi Kang follows Jessea Lu, the first Chinese female freediving champion, as she returns to the competition site where her 2018 world record-shattering attempt left her lifeless for four minutes.
Lu’s training involves more than expanding breath-holding abilities, physiological capacities, and endurance. Freediving demands mental discipline to remain relaxed at great depths and maintain awareness of bodily functions. After her near-death experience, Lu had a profound emotional revelation that surfaced past traumas related to her troubled
