More than a spot for recreation, industry and research, the ocean can also be a sanctuary for healing, according to a new film.
“SALTWATERx,” a documentary created by two La Jollans, details the scientific power of the ocean to treat many mental health disorders, following four people who use the sea as a modality to heal grief, loss and more.
The film is underpinned with interviews with local medical experts who expound on the physiological and psychological benefits of time in the ocean.
“SALTWATERx” is a production of Nautilus Studios, run by Brett Hoffman, a filmmaker who specializes in underwater cinematography and 2014 graduate of La Jolla High School.
Brett’s mother, physical therapist Steph Hoffman, served as the film’s executive producer.
The documentary will have its public world premiere to a sold-out audience May 9 at the Scripps Seaside Forum; a second showing is now selling tickets for 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 22 at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego.
The film took about a year and a half to make, Brett said, with Brett taking on many roles from director to color and sound editor and traveling from Tahiti to Hawaii to San Diego.
It “turned into a beautiful, one-hour piece,” he said, noting “SALTWATERx” has already won two best picture awards from film festival boards across the world.
The premise for the documentary began right here in La Jolla, where the Hoffman family has been established for many years.
“It’s our community,” Steph said. “We surf here, we swim here, I have my business in Jolla Shores.”
The Hoffmans had attended many films and lectures at UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography and “were inspired by these filmmakers and those researchers,” she said.
“It inspired us to take action,” Steph added. “We’re surfers. We swim in the ocean and we get the value.”
She and Brett endeavored to produce a film to remind others “how powerful the medicinal power of the ocean is,” she said. “Most people don’t even realize it.”
As many educational films, articles and lectures focus on how humanity has harmed the ocean, “SALTWATERx” provides insight into what the ocean does for us and why we should fight to protect it, Steph said.
The documentary began as a conservation-minded film but evolved through production, Brett said. “It really dove into a mental health piece that we didn’t really know was there.”
A surprisingly prominent “community element” also emerged, he said. In communing with the ocean, people find strength as a group, which can be healing.
“Maybe physicians don’t always have to write a prescription for an opioid; maybe they can write a prescription for a walk at the ocean,” Steph said.
Though she doesn’t discount the necessity of medicine in many cases, Steph emphasizes the information presented in “SALTWATERx” shows self-medicating at the sea is helpful.
The medical experts the Hoffmans consulted are all doctors and ocean enthusiasts themselves: Dr. Danielle Douglas of La Jolla Functional Medicine and an emergency room physician; Dr. Krista Roybal at True Life Center near UTC and Dr. Lee Rice of Lifewellness Institute in Point Loma.
“They all just had this similar passion that we have for the ocean and using the ocean as your treatment,” Steph said.
Premiering “SALTWATERx” at Scripps Seaside Forum, where they first attended others’ films, “is full circle,” she said, adding she hopes more public showings as well as at medical conferences.
“The messaging is really strong for mental health and prevention,” Steph said, reinforcing the “therapeutic value” of the water.
“The film is a rollercoaster of emotions,” Brett said. It’s a one of a kind thing.”
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