Sally Lomidze

Having trained Muay Thai for over 7 years, I fell in love with the artform, and yet I never had the urge to step into the ring myself, so when three of my gym friends, Christian, Jordan, and Taylor, announced that they were starting a 6-week fight camp to prepare for their next opponent, I knew that it was the perfect opportunity to take my camera and go behind the scenes with them. 

I set out to explore a simple question: what does it take to prepare for a fight? What I found was beyond my expectations - it truly takes everything. The main themes that emerged throughout my observation were: love, sweat, and hunger. Love for both the sport and the community, centered around our very special Brooklyn-based martial arts gym, Chop&Chops MMA. Sweat from all the hard work that each fighter, their coaches and teammates put into the camp, because in order to win, you have to train harder than your opponent. And hunger as the ultimate sacrifice - both physical and social, as for those 6 weeks all you do is train.

To be honest, making this documentary felt like going through a fight camp of my own, because at certain points the story just seemed too big and overwhelming for me to figure out, given that I was working as a one-woman band, directing, filming and editing. But whenever I contemplated giving up, I thought back to the fighters themselves. Seeing them go through all the ups and downs of the camp inspired me to push through my own struggles and reflect on their story through my lens. It took me excruciating 6 months to edit the documentary, with over 40 hours of footage on my timeline, but I am really proud of the story it came out to be, and I am so excited to share it with you. Hope you enjoy!