Ed Accura: filmmaker and campaigner

SøEdited Team
Article: Kellie Neilson
SøEditor-in-Chief: Chris Saint Sims 
​SøDeputy-Editor: Savannah Barthorpe
​
​As summer draws families to beaches, rivers and lakes, the simple act of cooling off can quickly turn tragic. Yet despite drowning claiming hundreds of thousands of lives globally every year, water safety rarely dominates headlines; until disaster strikes.

For filmmaker, musician and social activist Ed Accura, that silence is exactly what needs to change.

His latest documentary, No Lifeguard, is a powerful and deeply personal call to rethink how we approach water safety. Rather than focusing solely on swimming ability, Accura challenges us to take responsibility for the decisions we make before our feet even touch the water.

"I'm not telling people to learn a new skill," he tells me. "I'm simply telling people not to die."

It may surprise audiences to learn that Accura only learned to swim four years ago. His journey began with the groundbreaking documentary Blacks Can't Swim, a film born from his own experiences that unexpectedly ignited national conversations around race, culture and access to swimming. It also led to him co-founding the Black Swimming Association and becoming one of Britain's most recognisable advocates for inclusive water safety.

After producing several documentaries, he thought he was finished.

"My wife told me it was time to stop," he laughs. "Everything I create is funded by myself." But a rising number of drowning incidents changed his mind.

"I kept seeing people going on holiday and not coming home. I realised this message couldn't wait."

"I'm not telling people to learn to swim. I'm telling people not to die. “

The documentary's title isn't really about the professionals who patrol our beaches. It's about us.

"When people hear the word 'lifeguard'," says Accura, "they imagine someone in a yellow shirt watching from the shore."

But he believes every one of us should become our own first lifeguard.
Before entering the water, he says, we should ask ourselves: What are today's conditions? Am I confident? Do I know my limits?

Those decisions save lives long before anyone needs rescuing.
His central message is refreshingly simple and difficult to ignore.

Don't outsource your safety.

"Why would you expect somebody else to guard your life before you do?"

While No Lifeguard explores water safety in Britain, it also travels to Ghana and Sri Lanka, countries where drowning rates are significantly higher. Accura believes official figures tell only part of the story.

"So many people are never reported. They simply don't come home."

For him, filming in Ghana also became a journey back to his own childhood. Growing up there, education always came before swimming lessons.

"I wanted to learn to swim so I could go to a friend's birthday party," he recalls. "My mum told me to concentrate on my schoolwork instead."

The documentary never judges these choices. Instead, it reveals the cultural and economic realities that shape attitudes towards water across the world.
Perhaps the greatest obstacle isn't access to swimming pools or lessons.
It's relevance.

"The biggest challenge," Accura says, "is that water safety isn't relevant to people, until it is."

He's discovered that traditional safety campaigns often fail to reach the very communities most at risk. That's why he uses music, documentaries and storytelling instead of statistics alone.

"I use creative media to start conversations with people who might never engage with traditional water safety messages."
His approach is working because it meets audiences where they already are.

Our conversation moves beyond the documentary itself and into a broader discussion about how organisations engage with communities. Accura believes policymakers often make the mistake of expecting people to come to them rather than taking the conversation to where people actually live.

He recalls inviting representatives from the RNLI to a community barbecue in London rather than hosting young people at their headquarters. The result was one of the most successful engagement events they'd experienced.

"When you meet people in their own environment," he explains, "you begin to understand their reality."

It's a lesson that feels just as relevant to government and public services as it does to water safety.

One of the documentary's most thought-provoking ideas is that swimming ability alone isn't enough.

"The best swimmers in the world still drown," Accura says matter-of-factly.
Instead, he believes we should place greater emphasis on water confidence and water competence and understanding conditions, recognising danger and making good decisions before entering the water.

Swimming is a life skill. Knowing when not to swim may be an even greater one.
As our conversation draws to a close, I ask Accura what he hopes people will remember after watching No Lifeguard. He doesn't hesitate.

"Don't outsource your safety to someone else."

It's a message that lingers long after the credits roll.
In a world where we often assume someone else will step in when things go wrong, No Lifeguard reminds us that the first person responsible for our safety has always been ourselves.
​
With No Lifeguard, Ed Accura hasn't simply made another documentary. He's started a conversation that could save lives. And if his message reaches even one person before they step into the water this summer, it may prove to be his most important film yet.

​Strike Media