Director: Mikael Håfström
Water scarcity meets one of the world's most restless inventive minds in SlingShot, Mikael Håfström's 2024 documentary portrait of Segway creator Dean Kamen and his push to build a machine that could purify water anywhere on earth.
What is SlingShot about?
Rather than treating invention as a solitary flash of genius, the film follows Kamen through years of setbacks, prototypes, and skepticism as he tries to turn a compact water-purification device, nicknamed the Slingshot, into something that could reach communities without clean drinking water. Kamen comes across as blunt, impatient, and often difficult to work with, and the film doesn't sand down those edges. Colleagues and engineers speak candidly about the friction of collaborating with someone so certain of his own vision, while also acknowledging the scale of what he is attempting to solve. The documentary threads together lab footage, field tests, and interviews to show how a stubborn engineering obsession can collide with the messy realities of global infrastructure, funding, and bureaucracy, without ever losing sight of the human cost of unsafe water.
Cast & crew
The documentary is built around extended access to Dean Kamen himself, with narration and framing contributions credited to Casey Affleck, Laurence Fishburne, Emily Beecham, Tomer Capone, David Morrissey, Nikolett Barabas, Charlotta Lövgren, and Mark Ebulue.
Context & significance
Directed by Mikael Håfström and released in 2024, SlingShot is a Hungarian-American production that sits in the biography and documentary space, tracking real engineering and humanitarian efforts rather than staging dramatized scenes. At 88 minutes, it moves briskly between Kamen's workshop and the field sites where his invention was actually tested.
Where & how to watch
SlingShot is available on K-Time with both Persian dubbing and Persian subtitles, and the film's page can be read freely without signing in. Streaming the documentary itself requires a K-Time account login, and the platform's Farsi-first design is built for viewers across the Iranian diaspora.