SALT: The Primal Relationship Between Sodium Chloride and Alice Ward
"Why is my baby salty?"
Salt is a short film that gives sodium chloride a new, humanlike perspective.
In the conversational-style, voiceover documentary starring the voices of Alice and her parents, the audience can understand salt from a different lens, their lens.
Sodium chloride is vital for all life, serving as the primary salt in seawater and an essential compound within our bodies.
In Salt, we learn of Alice’s journey of being diagnosed with cystic fibrosis as a young girl. Her mother knew something was wrong because she tasted an unusual saltiness when she kissed her.
There was a moment in the completely b-rolled documentary that I thought the film would take a mermaid turn, and in a way it did. Young Alice had an inner strength that gave her parents hope for her future, allowing them to give her more leeway with extracurricular activities, like bodyboarding.
Her passion for filmmaking and being in the (salty) ocean ultimately changed her life and health in ways that cannot be explained other than by a miracle.
Now, Alice has become the first woman in Ireland to capture surfing from a female perspective.
Salt is warm, hopeful, artful, and a beautiful portrayal of how salt affected Alice’s professional and personal life, having its U.S. premiere at the Brooklyn Film Festival.