Fightville

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Meet the 2011 SXSW Filmmakers | “Fightville” Directors Michael Tucker and Petra Epperlein
by indieWIRE (Updated 1 hour, 3 minutes ago)

Mixed Martial Arts has grown from a controversial no-holds-barred gladiatorial sideshow into a billion dollar phenomenon eclipsing boxing as the dominant combat sport in the world. But far from Las Vegas, in sweat-soaked gyms and low-rent arenas across America, the big lights are but a dream. Here, men fight to test their mettle, fortified with the mythic promise that an ordinary man can transform into a champion. “Fightville” is about the art and sport of fighting: a microcosm of life, a physical manifestation of that other brutal contest called the American Dream. [Synopsis courtesy of SXSW]

[indieWIRE invited directors with films in the SXSW Narrative, Documentary Competitions and Emerging Visions sections to submit responses in their own words about their films. These profiles are being published through the beginning of the 2011 SXSW Film Conference and Festival. To prompt the discussion, indieWIRE asked the filmmakers about what inspired their films, the challenges they faced and other general questions. They were also free to add additional comments related to their projects.]

“Fightville”
Documentary Competition
Director: Michael Tucker, Petra Epperlein
Producer: Petra Epperlein, Michael Tucker
Cast: Dustin “The Diamond” Poirier, Albert Stainback, Gil “The Thrill” Guillory
Screenwriter: Michael Tucker
Cinematographer: Mike “The Truth” Tucker
Editor: Michael Tucker, Petra Epperlein
Sound: CJ DeGennaro
Music: Alex Kliment

Responses courtesy of “Fightville” directors Michael Tucker and Petra Epperlein.

An unusual path to filmmaking…

We fell into filmmaking by accident. We met in New York City in 1994 where Petra was exploring opportunities in architecture and I was regaining equilibrium after living in Vietnam and Thailand for two years. We hit it off—personally and creatively—and soon enough we were living together in Berlin developing projects.

Our first film was “The Last Cowboy.” Supported by Sony Europe, it was probably the first film completely shot and edited on DV and it went on to be the first non-studio film to be put on DVD. At the time, DVD burners cost more than $20,000, so we leveraged our expertise and worked with major rights holders to introduce DVD to the European market. After a few too many “Austin Powers” Special Editions, we became restless, abandoned everything and drove to Andalusia to figure out what to do next. While in Spain, on the heels of Y2K, we began work on “Nomados,” a digital series for children that explored conservation topics around the world. That took us to Namibia and Australia where we tracked rhinos, tagged cheetahs and avoided crocodiles.

The world of fighting…

“Fightville” was directly born out of “How to Fold a Flag.” One of our characters, Michael Goss, an Army vet suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), was an amateur cage fighter and he invited us to film a couple of his bouts on the regional Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) circuit in Louisiana. We were immediately fascinated, but knew nothing about MMA. What we did know, was that the world we stumbled into was ripe to be filmed. Cajun Acadiana, with its distinct patois, roughnecks, shotgun houses and hot nights, was about as far away from the big lights of Vegas as you could get. It was a world of survivors—underdogs—a place where adversity is a lifestyle. What other place has a neighborhood (Fightville) named after its passion for fighting?

The literary nature of fighting…

We approached the subject armed with literature. Every fight is a story and the sweet science—boxing—has long been a literary staple. Jack London used to spar with his wife in his garden. Hemingway bragged of his fighting skills. Mailer wrote as much about boxing as he did about culture. Joyce Carol Oates—the most unlikely fan of all—spent her childhood with her father at the Garden watching the champions of the day battle it out. Fightville is the kind of place where they would have saddled up to the bar and written about the next big thing.

There’s something about a fight that attracts and repels us. When two men square off toe to toe, they aren’t just fighting, they are brutally acting out the drama of life. It’s undiluted competition and while it may be a sport, it’s a sport that isn’t played. It’s about giving and receiving hurt, domination and submission. For the audience, the arena is the place where their dragons are slain. A champion isn’t just fighting his opponent, he’s fighting to overcome life itself.

Misconceptions about fighting…

The biggest challenge in developing the project was the general misperception of the sport. MMA is one of those things where everybody has an opinion, even if they haven’t seen it. In fact, it still isn’t legal in New York State, due to some very stubborn members of the NY State Assembly and some resistance from boxing promoters. Right now, MMA is the fastest growing sport in the world. A few weeks ago, the UFC sold-out a show in Toronto—55,000 seats for $11,000,000 in under ten minutes. And yet still, sight unseen, people think it’s some sort of no-holds-barred gladiatorial spectacle where giants enter the cage and beat the snot out of each other.

All that said, we focused on the art of fighting and the physical, mental and spiritual transformation that a fighter must undergo to be a champion. What kid hasn’t wanted to run the stairs like Rocky, arms in the air, victorious not just in the fight, but in life. We all want to be better, advertising tells us so. But what does it take to be a champion? In the end, “Fightville” may be less about fighting and more about what it takes to be the best at anything.

Upcoming projects…

Right now, we are focused on “Fightville.” After four war films in a row, it feels good to be engaged in something that rings triumphant. At the same time, as the 10th anniversary of the war in Iraq approaches, we are working on an epic meta-documentary for the classroom that will bring personal context to the war for the next generation. Petra is also finishing a graphic novel about life in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and we are looking at our first narrative feature.

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I like the literal angle. Looks intriguing.

There's so much more traffic on the Media forum. This is a much better place for it.

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Documentary exposes gritty, gruelling underside of MMA
Published On Sun Apr 24 2011

In the opening moments of the documentary Fightville, a small-time mixed martial arts promoter named Gil (The Thrill) Guillory fishes for the words to explain the sport’s exploding popularity.

Finally, he settles on three: “Fighting is truth.”

And the truths revealed in Fightville, an 85-minute film slated to make its Canadian premiere April 28 at the Hot Docs Film Festival, surprised even veteran documentarian Michael Tucker.

Veterans of four docs about the Iraq war, including the critically acclaimed Gunner Palace, Tucker and production partner Petra Epperlein know plenty about combat. And when they landed in Lafayette, La., two years ago to begin shooting Fightville, they expected to make a film about fighters.

Instead, they stumbled upon a group of men Tucker calls “artists,” a community of pugilists as dedicated to their craft as Tucker is to his.

“This is something that’s incredibly positive and with this next generation of kids getting into it, it’s going to become incredibly mainstream,” Tucker says. “It’s people who want to make themselves better through something. (During a fight) it’s not rage. It’s not anger. It’s competition, and those are two different things.”

The film focuses on four pivotal figures in Lafayette’s vibrant MMA scene.

Guillory is the former pro wrestler turned promoter who scours Louisiana and Texas for talent, and who has invested his entire savings in an upcoming show.

Tim (Crazy) Credeur is the grizzled but philosophical UFC veteran who runs Gladiators, the town’s biggest MMA gym.

Albert Stainback is the child of a broken home who trains for MMA because he feels his life would slide off the rails if he didn’t.

And Dustin (The Diamond) Poirier is the total package. At 21 years old he has the talent, the rapidly developing skill and the desire to reach the sport’s highest level — the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

Their lives intersect at Gladiators, a sweat-soaked training centre jammed into a narrow strip mall storefront in Lafayette, a hard-knuckle town on the Gulf of Mexico surrounded by oil fields and full of tough men.

In other words, it’s the perfect incubator for MMA fighters.

“It’s blue-collar, and work ethic still matters here,” says Credeur, who returns to the UFC on June 4 in Las Vegas. “Our parents raised us to work hard and dedicate ourselves to whatever we pursue, whether that be shucking oysters or boiling crawfish or mixed martial arts.”

In following the four main characters through 18 months of their lives, Fightville also exposes the gritty underside of a sport that appears glamorous on the UFC’s monthly pay-per-views.

It shows the gruelling pre-dawn conditioning workouts that are an essential part of building a fighter, and the concussive sparring sessions that Credeur uses to separate the guys who want to fight from the guys who simply say they do.

And it follows Stainback as he signs his first pro contract, which Guillory writes out by hand backstage at a weigh-in.

The action depicted is more raw than anything you’ll see in the UFC, but no less authentic.

“Every piece of this film is 100 per cent real and it’s just awesome to have those moments caught on tape,” says Poirier, who made his UFC debut in January. “After film festivals, guys come up to me and say, ‘I didn’t even know what mixed martial arts was, but I’m a fan now.’ If the film can do that, it captured what it needed to.”

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Showtime Buys Mixed Martial Arts Doc “Fightville”
by Bryce J. Renninger (Updated 21 hours, 14 minutes ago)

Petra Epperlein and Michael Tucker’s mixed martial arts (MMA) film “Fightville,” which premiered at this year’s SXSW, has been snatched up by Showtime for television broadcast. The film is currently at Hot Docs in Toronto.

The full release follows.

PEPPER & BONES FIND A HOME FOR THEIR MIXED MARTIAL ARTS FILM “FIGHTVILLE” ON SHOWTIME®

May 3, 2011 - Pepper & Bones announced today that Showtime Networks Inc. has acquired their latest documentary, FIGHTVILLE, for U.S. exhibition. The premium network closed a deal on the film, directed by Petra Epperlein and Michael Tucker, shortly after its rousing world premiere at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, TX last month.

“We are thrilled to have SHOWTIME as our partner for FIGHTVILLE,” says co-director Petra Epperlein. “Mixed Martial Arts is the fastest growing sport in the world and SHOWTIME is a major force in combat sports and truly represents the best in original programming,” adds Epperlein.

FIGHTVILLE chronicles the story of a minor league Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) promotion run by Gil “The Thrill” Guillory in Lafayette, Louisiana—a place where, for many, fighting is as much ritual as it is sport. In FIGHTVILLE, life is a contest, and the area around Lafayette, which includes a neighborhood that is the namesake of the film, has no shortage of up-and-coming fighters willing to fight their way out of the dusty rodeo arenas of Louisiana to the big lights of Las Vegas. Many of them train with veteran UFC fighter “Crazy” Tim Credeur at his Gladiators Academy, where he seeks to “build better men,” while developing champion fighters.

One of those fighters, Dustin “The Diamond” Poirier, quickly became the focus of the film after a series of dramatic victories. His story forms the backbone of the film. “The first time we saw Dustin fight, we were immediately taken with him,” states co-director Michael Tucker. “You could tell that the kid was going places.” “More than just fighting, FIGHTVILLE is about what it takes to be the best at anything,” adds Tucker. “We hope that FIGHTVILLE will introduce a wider audience to the beauty and passion of MMA while elevating the mainstream perception of the sport.”

Submarine Entertainment’s Josh Braun negotiated the deal with Showtime Networks Inc., and a US theatrical and DVD distribution deal is planned as well. FIGHTVILLE had its international premiere on April 28th at Hot Docs film festival in Toronto, Canada on the eve of UFC 129, the biggest fight in UFC history.

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US theatrical release?

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Ho-Ho-Kus producer is behind 'Fightville' documentary about Mixed Martial Arts
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
BY JIM BECKERMAN STAFF WRITER

The first rule of "Fightville" is that you do talk about "Fightville."

[IMG]http://media.northjersey.com/images/300*200/0418FightvilleF_Fightville4.jpg[/IMG]
Ho-Ho-Kus' Michael W. Gray produced the film that follows mixed martial arts fighter Dustin Poirier, right.

Anyway, executive producer Michael W. Gray of Ho-Ho-Kus does – and with good reason.

This documentary about the brutal sub-world of MMA (mixed martial arts) fighting, directed by Petra Epperlein and Michael Tucker ("Gunner Palace") and opening Friday at New York's Cinema Village on East 12th Street, is in one sense his own "Rocky" story – his two-fisted, two-legged, two-elbowed entry into the world of professional filmmaking. And he can't help but identify with Dustin Poirier, the young up-and-comer who is the standout among several athletes profiled in the film.

"Poirier is a guy fighting for his dream," Gray says. "[My career] runs parallel to his. I identified film as my passion, albeit later in life, and pursued it with fervor."

A Westwood native (Westwood High School class of 1987) and William Paterson University graduate, the 43-year-old Gray found himself working in advertising, real estate and venture capital. But his real passion, he realized seven years ago, was movies. And he found his entree through another of his passions: martial arts.

"I had trained for a hobby in a Brazilian jiu-jitsu gym, for many years," he says. "That's how I got introduced to the directors in the first place. ... A colleague in the film business heard about the start-up of a mixed martial arts film, and asked if I wanted to be introduced to the filmmakers."

"Fightville," filmed over a period of two years, premiered at the 2011 South by Southwest festival and has been shown at a dozen others worldwide; it opens this week simultaneously in New York and Los Angeles, with additional release on Apple iTunes and on-demand cable. "This film has wide audience appeal," Gray says. "The guys in the film are highly trained, dedicated athletes at the highest level."

A slam-bang combination of boxing, wrestling, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Muay Thai, kickboxing, tae kwon do, karate and judo, mixed martial arts is not without controversy (several states, including New York and Vermont, have banned it).

But this variant of cage fighting is full of raw, outrageous, testosterone-fueled action: The fighting techniques have names like "sprawl-and-brawl" and "ground-and-pound." And it's proved increasingly popular since the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) was founded by Brazil's Gracie family – a prominent sporting franchise – in 1993.

"One of the beauties of it is you sort of find yourself when you're competing," Gray says. "You define yourself by how you react, and how you adjust, and how you handle yourself during this conflict. The fighting transcends the fight: It defines you as a person. If you're stuck in a situation, are you going to give up? Or are you going to use your training, and think three steps ahead? It's really very much like a chess match."

"Fightville" focuses on Gladiators Academy, a gym in Lafayette, La. – Cajun central – where ambitious young people train for what is almost the equivalent of modern gladiatorial combat. The film focuses in particular on 22-year-old Poirier, currently competing as a featherweight in the UFC (he's ranked No. 5 by MMA Weekly, a website devoted to the sport).

"Some people just have this in them, just as other people might turn to art or architecture," Gray says. "In this case, our protagonist, Dustin, has this in his blood. His father fought. His grandfather fought."

In Poirier's determination to live his dream, Gray sees something of himself. He has his own challenges – following "Fightville," he's got executive producer credits on several upcoming films, including "Darkroom" (a horror film; Gray is co-executive producer) and "The Birder's Guide to Everything," with Sir Ben Kingsley.

" 'Fightville' is an important film, because it has a message," Gray says. "You do something you love, you pursue your passion with everything you've got. Life is short. This film is about that."

Email: beckerman@northjersey.com

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Eager to hear some reviews from y'all. I probably won't see it unless y'all start raving about it.

I caught this the other night, a little MMA fighting gym in LA, small time promoter, fighters and there real life motivations and challenges. These are no name fighters from a less than infamous gym. In addition, some great clips of fighting, training, and the warrior spirit. Fighting contracts hand written on a piece of blank paper, I was wow'd by that...figured no one makes hand written fight contracts anymore.

There were individual philosophical quotes about fighting and martial arts in here. Very insightful I thought, and I have great respect for the athletes, the martial artists who train full time. Lots of behind the scenes of what it takes to make these productions run, again I was impressed.

Clearly a cut or two above TV's Ultimate Fighter...it didn't feel contrived or controlled.

HH approved. I give it 8 Bawangs out of 10.