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BELOW SURFACE reveals the extraordinary power of community through an unlikely subject: a YMCA Aquafit class. The documentary gathers numerous moving stories of a multicultural and multi-generational Aquafit class to demonstrate how kindness and caring for others, combined with exercise, can be an antidote for grief, stress, and physical illness. The heartwarming honesty of the participants is a reminder of the power we all have to support one another.
Watch the exclusive discussion following the film with special panelists:
Lesley Jane Seymour
Creator of CoveyClub and former editor-in-chief of More Magazine
Lesley Jane Seymour is a media entrepreneur and one of the industry's most respected leaders. In 2017, she created CoveyClub from a 54-page survey that 627 former More Magazine readers took after the closure of More Magazine. From 2008-2016, she served as editor-in-chief of More Magazine, the leading lifestyle magazine for women over 40. Lesley was also the editor-in-chief and social media director of More.com, which attracted over 12 million monthly page views and 600,000 unique visitors.
Lesley has spoken at or served as master of ceremonies at the largest gatherings for women or media executives in the country, including the 2011 Matrix Awards. In 2013 (through 2016) she was named Chair of the Editorial Advisory Board for Duke Magazine and a Global Ambassador for Vital Voices. She is a former trustee at Dana Hall School in Wellesley, Massachusetts. She currently serves on the board of the New Orleans Women’s Exchange which supports the Hermann-Grima & Gallier Historic Houses.
Mary Lake Polan
Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences
Dr. Mary Lake Polan has combined rigorous scientific research with a humanistic clinical approach, in a career spanning women's health, clinical medicine, medical education, and governmental organizations. She earned a Ph.D. in molecular biophysics and biochemistry in 1970, followed by a medical degree in 1975, both from Yale University School of Medicine. After completing her residency at Yale she held a fellowship in reproductive endocrinology in its department of obstetrics and gynecology. In 2001, after deciding to expand her efforts and research in women's health, Dr. Polan earned a master of public health degree in the Maternal and Child Health Program at the University of California, Berkeley.
Dr. Polan worked and taught at Yale University School of Medicine until 1990, with intervals as a visiting professor in Iran in 1978 and China in 1986. In 1990 she moved to Stanford University School of Medicine, where she has since served as chair of the department of obstetrics and gynecology and as the Katharine Dexter McCormick and Stanley McCormick Memorial Professor.
The National Institutes of Health appointed Dr. Mary Polan co-chair of the Task Force on Opportunities for Research on Women's Health in 1991. From 1995 to 1998 she was also a member of the Director's Panel on Clinical Research. Dr. Polan was elected to the Institute of Medicine in 1993 and served on its Governing Council through 2005. At the request of Tommy Thompson, then Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Dr. Polan served as one of eleven members of the Secretary's Advisory Committee on Human Research Protections through 2006.
Dr. Polan also has served on numerous other medical and health committees, including the American Society for Reproductive Medicine and the American Medical Women's Association. She is a fellow of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology and a member of many professional societies.
Since 2015, Dr. Polan has been Professor of Clinical Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at Yale University School of Medicine.
Linda Fried
Dean of Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health
Linda P. Fried, MD, MPH, is Dean of Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health since 2008. She serves as Senior Vice President of Columbia University Irving Medical Center, and Director of the Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center, a university-wide center housed in the Mailman School
Dr. Fried is a physician expert in geriatric medicine and renowned population scientist. She has dedicated her career to the science of healthy longevity, including defining frailty as a clinical syndrome and illuminating its causes, and defining the causes and consequences of cardiovascular disease and multimorbidity, loneliness and disability in aging.
Prior to becoming Dean, Dr. Fried was the Mason F. Lord Professor of Geriatric Medicine at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, where she was the founding Director of the Center on Aging and Health, the center of excellence for aging research, and Director of the Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology. She was the principal investigator of major longitudinal cohort studies, including the NIH-funded Cardiovascular Health Study and the Women's Health and Aging Studies I and II, of the Older Americans' Independence Center, and randomized controlled trials, including the Experience Corps Trial and the GEM trial of Gingko Biloba for prevention of cognitive decline. She was the founding Chair of the Johns Hopkins Department of Medicine Task Force on the Academic Careers of Women in Medicine (1989-95) and chaired the University President's Task Force on the Status of Women in Academic Careers (1998-2003).
Dr. Fried is the author of over 500 peer-reviewed articles. She is an elected member of the U.S. National Academy of Medicine since 2000, and currently serves as a re-elected member of its Executive Council. Elected to the Association of American Physicians in 2003, she served as its President from 2016-17. She was a member of the Council of the National Institute on Aging, served as a member of the World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on Aging (2006-18), its Council on Longevity, and co-chaired its Council on Human Enhancement. Dean Fried is an elected member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She was named among the top 1 percent "most influential scientific minds of the past decade" by Thomson-Reuters in 2014, and by The New York Times as "one of 15 world leaders in science" in 2012. She is the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including, most recently, the 2022 George M. Kober Medal of the Association of American Physicians; Nicholas Murray Butler Medal, Columbia University; Crain's New York Health Care Notable; Politics New York Power Players in Health Care; and 2023 Knight of the Legion of Honor, Government of France.
Patty Kondub
Patty Kondub is a Westport, CT native who wears many hats in town since leaving the corporate world and her own mailing and telemarketing business over 30 years ago.
She is best known for her 36 years teaching and coordinating Aqua Fitness and Spinning at the Westport/Weston YMCA, leading fitness programs at the Westport Senior Center, and 17 years as the Staples High School Girls’ Golf Coach.
During COVID through Winter of 2023, Patty’s Chair Aerobics classes with costumes and canine co-stars aired every Friday on Westport’s Public Access TV and the Town’s website and Facebook Live. This was one of her beloved volunteer activities, as was Co-Chairing the SpinOdyssey. For 12 of its 15 years she volunteered to head up the biggest indoor cycling event in the country that raised over $3,500,000 for American Cancer Society breast cancer researchers and Whittingham Cancer Center at Norwalk Hospital.
Patty is also passionate about her volunteer position as Senior Vice President of the VFW Post 399 Auxiliary and Secretary of the American Legion Post 63 in Westport, helping veterans in various ways and raising money for our veterans.
Executive Producers: Mary Lake Polan & Frank A. Bennack Jr.
Director: Lukas Hauser
Producer: Judith Bookbinder
BELOW SURFACE reveals the extraordinary power of community through an unlikely subject: a YMCA Aquafit class. The documentary gathers numerous moving stories of a multicultural and multi-generational Aquafit class to demonstrate how kindness and caring for others, combined with exercise, can be an antidote for grief, stress, and physical illness. The heartwarming honesty of the participants is a reminder of the power we all have to support one another.
Watch the exclusive discussion following the film with special panelists:
Lesley Jane Seymour
Creator of CoveyClub and former editor-in-chief of More Magazine
Lesley Jane Seymour is a media entrepreneur and one of the industry's most respected leaders. In 2017, she created CoveyClub from a 54-page survey that 627 former More Magazine readers took after the closure of More Magazine. From 2008-2016, she served as editor-in-chief of More Magazine, the leading lifestyle magazine for women over 40. Lesley was also the editor-in-chief and social media director of More.com, which attracted over 12 million monthly page views and 600,000 unique visitors.
Lesley has spoken at or served as master of ceremonies at the largest gatherings for women or media executives in the country, including the 2011 Matrix Awards. In 2013 (through 2016) she was named Chair of the Editorial Advisory Board for Duke Magazine and a Global Ambassador for Vital Voices. She is a former trustee at Dana Hall School in Wellesley, Massachusetts. She currently serves on the board of the New Orleans Women’s Exchange which supports the Hermann-Grima & Gallier Historic Houses.
Mary Lake Polan
Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences
Dr. Mary Lake Polan has combined rigorous scientific research with a humanistic clinical approach, in a career spanning women's health, clinical medicine, medical education, and governmental organizations. She earned a Ph.D. in molecular biophysics and biochemistry in 1970, followed by a medical degree in 1975, both from Yale University School of Medicine. After completing her residency at Yale she held a fellowship in reproductive endocrinology in its department of obstetrics and gynecology. In 2001, after deciding to expand her efforts and research in women's health, Dr. Polan earned a master of public health degree in the Maternal and Child Health Program at the University of California, Berkeley.
Dr. Polan worked and taught at Yale University School of Medicine until 1990, with intervals as a visiting professor in Iran in 1978 and China in 1986. In 1990 she moved to Stanford University School of Medicine, where she has since served as chair of the department of obstetrics and gynecology and as the Katharine Dexter McCormick and Stanley McCormick Memorial Professor.
The National Institutes of Health appointed Dr. Mary Polan co-chair of the Task Force on Opportunities for Research on Women's Health in 1991. From 1995 to 1998 she was also a member of the Director's Panel on Clinical Research. Dr. Polan was elected to the Institute of Medicine in 1993 and served on its Governing Council through 2005. At the request of Tommy Thompson, then Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Dr. Polan served as one of eleven members of the Secretary's Advisory Committee on Human Research Protections through 2006.
Dr. Polan also has served on numerous other medical and health committees, including the American Society for Reproductive Medicine and the American Medical Women's Association. She is a fellow of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology and a member of many professional societies.
Since 2015, Dr. Polan has been Professor of Clinical Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at Yale University School of Medicine.
Linda Fried
Dean of Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health
Linda P. Fried, MD, MPH, is Dean of Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health since 2008. She serves as Senior Vice President of Columbia University Irving Medical Center, and Director of the Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center, a university-wide center housed in the Mailman School
Dr. Fried is a physician expert in geriatric medicine and renowned population scientist. She has dedicated her career to the science of healthy longevity, including defining frailty as a clinical syndrome and illuminating its causes, and defining the causes and consequences of cardiovascular disease and multimorbidity, loneliness and disability in aging.
Prior to becoming Dean, Dr. Fried was the Mason F. Lord Professor of Geriatric Medicine at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, where she was the founding Director of the Center on Aging and Health, the center of excellence for aging research, and Director of the Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology. She was the principal investigator of major longitudinal cohort studies, including the NIH-funded Cardiovascular Health Study and the Women's Health and Aging Studies I and II, of the Older Americans' Independence Center, and randomized controlled trials, including the Experience Corps Trial and the GEM trial of Gingko Biloba for prevention of cognitive decline. She was the founding Chair of the Johns Hopkins Department of Medicine Task Force on the Academic Careers of Women in Medicine (1989-95) and chaired the University President's Task Force on the Status of Women in Academic Careers (1998-2003).
Dr. Fried is the author of over 500 peer-reviewed articles. She is an elected member of the U.S. National Academy of Medicine since 2000, and currently serves as a re-elected member of its Executive Council. Elected to the Association of American Physicians in 2003, she served as its President from 2016-17. She was a member of the Council of the National Institute on Aging, served as a member of the World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on Aging (2006-18), its Council on Longevity, and co-chaired its Council on Human Enhancement. Dean Fried is an elected member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She was named among the top 1 percent "most influential scientific minds of the past decade" by Thomson-Reuters in 2014, and by The New York Times as "one of 15 world leaders in science" in 2012. She is the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including, most recently, the 2022 George M. Kober Medal of the Association of American Physicians; Nicholas Murray Butler Medal, Columbia University; Crain's New York Health Care Notable; Politics New York Power Players in Health Care; and 2023 Knight of the Legion of Honor, Government of France.
Patty Kondub
Patty Kondub is a Westport, CT native who wears many hats in town since leaving the corporate world and her own mailing and telemarketing business over 30 years ago.
She is best known for her 36 years teaching and coordinating Aqua Fitness and Spinning at the Westport/Weston YMCA, leading fitness programs at the Westport Senior Center, and 17 years as the Staples High School Girls’ Golf Coach.
During COVID through Winter of 2023, Patty’s Chair Aerobics classes with costumes and canine co-stars aired every Friday on Westport’s Public Access TV and the Town’s website and Facebook Live. This was one of her beloved volunteer activities, as was Co-Chairing the SpinOdyssey. For 12 of its 15 years she volunteered to head up the biggest indoor cycling event in the country that raised over $3,500,000 for American Cancer Society breast cancer researchers and Whittingham Cancer Center at Norwalk Hospital.
Patty is also passionate about her volunteer position as Senior Vice President of the VFW Post 399 Auxiliary and Secretary of the American Legion Post 63 in Westport, helping veterans in various ways and raising money for our veterans.
Executive Producers: Mary Lake Polan & Frank A. Bennack Jr.
Director: Lukas Hauser
Producer: Judith Bookbinder
