Since the 1930s, the La Quebrada Cliff Divers of Acapulco in southwestern Mexico have performed shows for the public, climbing steep and jagged oceanside cliffs and jumping up to 100 feet into the waves. In Voices From the Abyss, the Mexican directors Victor Rejón and Irving Serrano capture the divers in cinematic black and white, bringing to life the moments of fear, rushes of airborne adrenaline, and exciting fanfare that characterise their work, which, even for those who’ve been diving for decades, never seem to fade. Weaving together the stories and reflections of several divers, including children learning how to dive and the group’s most weathered veterans, the film finds a deep spiritual dimension both in the divers’ spectacular work and the dramatic location in which they perform it.
The Mexican cliff divers who take dazzling leaps into the unknown
Directors: Victor Rejón, Irving Serrano
Producer: Ramón Llaven

videoSports and games
Dances with whales: the ethereal underwater vistas of an elite freediving team
13 minutes

videoConsciousness and altered states
Diving to 100 metres on a single breath takes more than strong lungs and limbs
8 minutes

videoMood and emotion
Will they or won’t they? Prospective jumpers anguish at the edge of the high dive
16 minutes

videoDance and theatre
Deep, free, elemental: a dance to celebrate women, in the world’s deepest diving pool
6 minutes

videoConsciousness and altered states
A glimpse into the dangerous and thrilling life of a big wave surf photographer
6 minutes

videoNature and landscape
How the vast powers of the sea shape life on a sacred peninsula in Oaxaca, Mexico
21 minutes

videoFamily life
For Dulce, the rite of passage of learning to swim might soon be her means of survival
11 minutes

videoConsciousness and altered states
‘It makes sense of everything I am.’ The transcendence of the long-distance swimmer
12 minutes

videoWork
How three Mexican window-washers of Chicago’s skyscrapers see the world
10 minutes