Ten minutes. One fight. All heart. This tiny film hits harder than blockbusters twice its size.
A young Filipino backyard boxer enters a Mexican fight ring in the San Fernando Valley to pay his mother's medical bills.
Acting
Sistona's eyes sell years of debt in seconds.
Direction
Maravilla knows exactly when to cut to black.
Cinematography
Claustrophobic ring work that traps you with him.
Director
Gerardo Maravilla
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The San Fernando Valley setting matters: it's Mexican-American boxing culture clashing with Filipino diaspora labor, two communities historically pitted against each other in California's underground fight circuits.
Director Gerardo Maravilla made this as his thesis film at UCLA—shot in two days with borrowed equipment and actual backyard boxers as extras.
US
