BRUTING

Just as fighters are shaped by trading blows in the ring, a person can only be polished by meeting and colliding with others. BRUTING follows the path of one woman boxer, Tomomi Takano, watching how victory and defeat, glory and failure all cut and shape the rough stone that she is. Opponents, teammates, and the walls that stand in her way each become another diamond that grinds against her. The more her ego is worn down and the excess is stripped away, the closer she comes to the brilliance she was always meant to hold. Rising again and again through hardship, failure, despair and betrayal, she fights toward a women's boxing world title. This is a record of a painful polishing — the nearly decade-long story of Tomomi Takano, and of a person shaped by other people.

A model and professional boxer who once drew glamorous attention, she eventually finds it all but impossible to keep fighting in Japan and carries her challenge overseas — to the United States, the Philippines, Mexico, and Thailand. Facing the injustices of the boxing world and every kind of outside interference, she never yields, rising again no matter how many times she falls — and the camera follows her every step.

BRUTING is a feature-length documentary produced by Skell Group. High-resolution stills, key art, and the director's full statement are available in the press kit below.