WRESTLE

Co-Director, Writer, Producer

“RAW HONESTY... An empathic portrait of a mat that's anything but level.” - New York Times, Critic’s Pick

“SUPERB.” - Los Angeles Times

“HEARTBREAKING, YET HONEST… Will suck you in from beginning to end.” - Film Threat

Chronicling the final season of an underdog high school wrestling team in Huntsville, Alabama, WRESTLE constructs an empathic portrait of four young men fighting on a mat that’s anything but level.

Growing up on the far side of town, closed off from the city’s plentiful resources, teammates Jailen, Jamario, Teague, and Jaquan each face challenges far beyond a shot at the State Championship. Poverty, splintered family lives, mental health struggles, and troublesome encounters with the law all threaten to derail the successful futures they’re fighting so hard to claim. Their intense, boundary-pushing coach Chris Scribner isn’t off the hook, either; he must come to terms with his own complicated past while wading into the complexities of race, class, and privilege in the South.

What results is a powerful, and sometimes uncomfortable, portrayal of the team’s final season. Much more than a sports story, this vérité documentary is a closely observed, deeply affecting depiction of growing up disadvantaged in America today.

Released theatrically by Oscilloscope Laboratories. Spring 2019 season finale of ITVS’s Independent Lens on PBS. Available on iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, and Fandango Now. More info at wrestlefilm.com.