On the Ropes

For two years, the documentary filmmakers Nanette Burstein and Brett Morgen followed the members of a boxing club in Brooklyn, New York. Once, the club produced superstars like Riddick Bowe and Mark Breland, now a new generation of young fighters has entered the ring. They hope to box their way to the top, but their past keeps dogging them. Tyrene, for example, has to appear in court for possession of cocaine, and Noel is faced with a disrupted family: his father has deserted them, his mother used to be a crack addict. George, on the contrary, is doing very well. The year before, he won three championships, and now he hopes to scoop some prizes again. ‘My dream is to be the biggest boxing sensation ever. Maybe it’s farfetched, but if you don’t have dreams, you’ve got nightmares.‘ Coach Harry Keitt used to be an amateur boxer himself - he even fought against Muhammad Ali once - but does not have a clean slate, either: he was in prison for four years for attempted murder. Now he drills his pupils with complete abandon, because he knows that to them boxing is more than a match between two sportsmen; the boxers try to fight their way out of a rotten situation, with a lot at stake. It is all or nothing - becoming a champion or spending their days in the street. In the meantime, Hollywood has showed interest in making a dramatised version of the documentary.