Press Release:
August 15, 2015 (Originally released August 10, 2015) By Gaylen Ross, GR Films,
Inc. New York, NY -- For 20 years the film negative of this
remarkable documentary TitleShot – probably the last to be shot entirely
on 16mm film-- has been in the vault. Now
a Kickstarter campaign is launched by
award-winning filmmaker Gaylen Ross to get this film finished.
Life and circumstances had
interrupted its completion, and other documentaries were made in the meantime.
“I did films on Russian mail-order brides, Stock market fraud, Swiss banks and
the Holocaust accounts, and Killing Kasztner, the
story of the Hungarian Jew who negotiated with Eichmann, among other films.
But at the back of my mind was this incredible boxing story that was
waiting for me,” says director Gaylen Ross. “Now with Kickstarter we hope to get this gorgeous film footage out of the
vaults and for everyone to see!”
Kickstarter, the terrific crowd-funding site, allows people to
contribute towards the film funding and in turn receive rewards and recognition
for their pledges.
The good news is that the lapse of two decades has
allowed for a unique time capsule: a window into
a boxing era now gone. Much of TitleShot
was filmed at New York’s world-famous Gleason's Gym during a very
exciting era when the place was filled with World Champions and contenders.
Owner Bruce Gleason says “TitleShot shows what really happens to a
professional fighter through the rise and fall of professional junior
middleweight Ugandan boxer Godfrey Nyakana.” From training
at Gleason's to fighting at the Great Western Forum of Los Angeles, TitleShot
captures the uniquely exquisite blow-by-blow action of professional boxing
through Nyakana's title quest.
Careers have risen and
fallen (and some to return again) since TitleShot’s filming in the late
90’s. Godfrey is seen sparring with then up-and-coming Shane Mosely (as
Shane’s father/trainer looks on) or getting pre-fight bedroom advice from
legendary featherweight Kevin Kelley and his wife. Included are some of
boxing's greats, like trainer Bob Jackson, former middleweight contender
turned trainer, "Irish" Bobby Cassidy, and a few no
longer with us -- legendary cut man Al Gavin, Muhammad Ali's trainer Angelo
Dundee, and promoter Cedric Kushner.
The Kickstarter campaign has less than a month to go and the goal of $40,000 will finally get
the thousands of feet of film digitally transferred, color corrected, and the
audio synched to picture. “The dramatic behind-the-scenes of professional
boxing with trainers, manager and boxers are fly on the wall filming, and
rarely if ever accessible to outsiders,” says Gaylen Ross. From a
midnight meeting post fight in a hotel lobby with trainer and manager, to a
career-determining ultimatum with a fighter, it's the stuff of boxing you only
see in scripted feature films.
Through the extraordinary
verite cinematography of Bob Richman, (Metallica,
The September Issue, Paradise Lost,) TitleShot offers some of
the best in ringside fight action. The film travels with Godfrey
from match to match – the preludes, the fights themselves and their climatic
outcome. A former Commonwealth games gold-medal winner, Godfrey travels 3
hours on the subway each day from a tiny basement apartment in the East Bronx
to Gleason's. For Godfrey this is not just a fight for a title but for his life
-- manager, trainer, big money backers, wrapped up in the American dream. All
the while we meet other struggling boxers who
are on their own way up or
down, including a Detroit heavy weight who finds common ground with
Godfrey, as both travel through South Central Los Angeles. Tough battles
lead to the stunning pain that accompanies a knockout loss, or the exhilaration
of a win as this roller coaster ride careens from locker rooms to midnight
strategy meetings. The film stays with Godfrey and his team, as they groom him,
train him, celebrate with him or pull him back from defeat until that final
title shot. The title is a dream not only for Godfrey, but also
for his trainer Bobby Cassidy, who confronts his own lost chances as a
boxer, while pursuing the championships for his fighters.
The film will update where
the fighters are now: Godfrey Nyakana has returned to Uganda and is now
mayor of a district of its capital, Kampala, or fighters like Kevin Kelley,
and Shane Mosely currently training his own son, while planning a
comeback in the ring.
Director Gaylen Ross
Producers Gaylen Ross,
Andrew Ford
Consultants: Bruce
Silverglade, owner Gleason’s Gym
and Robert Cassidy, sports
journalist
View a scene from
TtileShot below: Credit: Gaylen Ross, GR Films, Inc./YouTube
For more information about the TitleShot Kickstarter
Campaign please visit: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/391667550/titleshot.
Like TitleShot on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/TitleShot/1626529884280401.
Material Courtesy of: Gaylen Ross, GR Films Inc. Used
with permission.
The Boxing Truth® is a registered trademark of Beau
Denison All Rights Reserved.
