If The Cage Fighter were a fiction film rather than a documentary, it would feel awfully familiar. This portrait of an aging amateur mixed martial arts fighter uncannily echoes Hollywood movies such as The Champ, Rocky, The Wrestler, Raging Bull and countless others. That the real-life figure at its center seems hellbent on following a trajectory similar to those films' fictional characters gives the documentary its emotional power.
Marking the directorial debut of Jeff Unay (a visual effects veteran whose credits include Avatar and Peter Jackson's King Kong), the documentary revolves around Joe Carman, who's facing a tough time as...
Marking the directorial debut of Jeff Unay (a visual effects veteran whose credits include Avatar and Peter Jackson's King Kong), the documentary revolves around Joe Carman, who's facing a tough time as...
- 2/2/2018
- by Frank Scheck
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Smt Heads, Sundance Selects’ “The Cage Fighter” makes sure that 2018’s indie season starts with some punch! This gritty documentary takes the audience through the lense and into the life of an aging Mma fighter.
Check the Trailer out right here:
The Cage Fighter: Opening in theaters and VOD February 2nd Directed by: Jeff Unay Starring: Joe Carman, Norinda Reed, Clayton Hoy, Callie Carman, Delanee Carman, Kira Carman, Mia Carman, & Vernon Beach When life hits him hard, Joe Carman punches back. Newly 40, Joe juggles long hours working in a boiler room, an ongoing custody battle, his wife’s chronic illness, and the demands of raising four girls. The one place he finds release is in the ring, where he competes in the bruising sport of mixed martial arts. Despite the promise he made to his family to stop fighting, Joe continues to train secretly, determined to prove that he can...
Check the Trailer out right here:
The Cage Fighter: Opening in theaters and VOD February 2nd Directed by: Jeff Unay Starring: Joe Carman, Norinda Reed, Clayton Hoy, Callie Carman, Delanee Carman, Kira Carman, Mia Carman, & Vernon Beach When life hits him hard, Joe Carman punches back. Newly 40, Joe juggles long hours working in a boiler room, an ongoing custody battle, his wife’s chronic illness, and the demands of raising four girls. The one place he finds release is in the ring, where he competes in the bruising sport of mixed martial arts. Despite the promise he made to his family to stop fighting, Joe continues to train secretly, determined to prove that he can...
- 1/19/2018
- by Jason Stewart
- Age of the Nerd
"The only time I feel on top of the world is when I'm fighting." IFC Films has debuted the official trailer for a documentary titled The Cage Fighter, which premiered at the True/False Film Festival last year. This docu-drama from director Jeff Unay plays like a feature film with a narrative following the real-life story of a fighter named Joe Carman. Joe is a blue-collar family man who breaks the promise he made years ago to never fight again. Now forty years old, with a wife and four children who need him, he risks everything – his marriage, his family, his health – to go back into the fighting cage and come to terms with his past. Carman stars, and the film's "cast" (if you can call it that) includes Norinda Reed, Clayton Hoy, Callie Carman, Delanee Carman, Kira Carman, Mia Carman, and Vernon Beach. This is a helluva trailer, damn.
- 1/17/2018
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
It’s been a few weeks since “The Cage Fighter” screened at the 13th Camden International Film Festival and four years since I met Joe Carman, the 40-year-old father and fighter who allowed me to share his story with the world. “The Cage Fighter,” which depicts the lives of a middle-aged man and his family, owes much of its existence to the ongoing support of the team at Points North Institute in Camden, Maine.
Two and a half years ago, we workshopped the film through Points North. Later that year, we returned to pitch at the Points North Pitch Forum (which takes place during the festival). Along the way, we met an array of incredible mentors and filmmakers — some of whom actually joined as key collaborators on our project. Bringing the finished film back to Ciff this year was such an important milestone for our film and me as a filmmaker.
Two and a half years ago, we workshopped the film through Points North. Later that year, we returned to pitch at the Points North Pitch Forum (which takes place during the festival). Along the way, we met an array of incredible mentors and filmmakers — some of whom actually joined as key collaborators on our project. Bringing the finished film back to Ciff this year was such an important milestone for our film and me as a filmmaker.
- 10/3/2017
- by Jeff Unay
- Indiewire
Keep up with the wild and wooly world of indie film acquisitions with our weekly Rundown of everything that’s been picked up around the globe. Check out last week’s Rundown here.
– The Orchard has acquired the North American rights to Jordan Ross’s directorial debut “Thumper,” starring “Orange is the New Black’s” Pablo Schreiber. The gritty crime thriller debuted at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival and was written and directed by Ross. The movie also stars Eliza Taylor, Lena Headey, Ben Feldman, Grant Harvey and Daniel Webber. Set in a town of low-income and fractured families, “Thumper” is centered around a group of teens that are lured into working for a dangerous drug dealer. A new girl arrives into town hiding a dangerous secret that will impact everybody and change their lives forever.
Read More: Film Acquisition Rundown: Mubi Buys Philippe Garrel’s ‘Lover for a Day,’ FilmRise...
– The Orchard has acquired the North American rights to Jordan Ross’s directorial debut “Thumper,” starring “Orange is the New Black’s” Pablo Schreiber. The gritty crime thriller debuted at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival and was written and directed by Ross. The movie also stars Eliza Taylor, Lena Headey, Ben Feldman, Grant Harvey and Daniel Webber. Set in a town of low-income and fractured families, “Thumper” is centered around a group of teens that are lured into working for a dangerous drug dealer. A new girl arrives into town hiding a dangerous secret that will impact everybody and change their lives forever.
Read More: Film Acquisition Rundown: Mubi Buys Philippe Garrel’s ‘Lover for a Day,’ FilmRise...
- 6/9/2017
- by Graham Winfrey
- Indiewire
Documentary gets Us deal ahead of international premiere at Doc/Fest.
Sundance Selects has taken Us rights to Jeff Unay’s documentary and directorial feature debut The Cage Fighter.
The film had its world premiere at the San Francisco International Film Festival and is set to have its international premiere at the UK’s Sheffield Doc/Fest on June 10.
James Orara produced and Andrea Meditch executive produced the film, which follows a plumber who becomes a cage fighter to escape the stresses of his everyday life.
“I am very excited that we are partnering with Sundance Selects to bring The Cage Fighter to the public,” commented Jeff Unay, director. “Their prestigious label/brand of films coupled together with their penchant to distribute their films to the widest possible audience is extremely promising and very important to our film. We are proud to be part of the Sundance Selects family.”
The deal for the film was negotiated by [link...
Sundance Selects has taken Us rights to Jeff Unay’s documentary and directorial feature debut The Cage Fighter.
The film had its world premiere at the San Francisco International Film Festival and is set to have its international premiere at the UK’s Sheffield Doc/Fest on June 10.
James Orara produced and Andrea Meditch executive produced the film, which follows a plumber who becomes a cage fighter to escape the stresses of his everyday life.
“I am very excited that we are partnering with Sundance Selects to bring The Cage Fighter to the public,” commented Jeff Unay, director. “Their prestigious label/brand of films coupled together with their penchant to distribute their films to the widest possible audience is extremely promising and very important to our film. We are proud to be part of the Sundance Selects family.”
The deal for the film was negotiated by [link...
- 6/8/2017
- by tom.grater@screendaily.com (Tom Grater)
- ScreenDaily
Joe Carman has a face made for the movies, but it’s not a pretty one. With an unkempt beard and tired eyes, he looks like he’s trapped in the headlights of a world that won’t cut him a break. The 40-year-old Seattle figure at the center of “The Cage Fighter” is a broken man defeated by every aspect of his life. Still, he does what he can to bury his troubles with macho swagger whenever he steps into the ring, engaging in the competitive mixed martial arts fighting that his family has urged him to quit. Carman’s persistence is at once inspiring and tragic, a bloodied metaphor for battling forward against impossible odds.
The feature-length debut of director Jeff Unay, “The Cage Fighter” hails from a tradition of intimate cinema verité that encompasses so many details from the lives of its subject that it may as well be a scripted drama.
The feature-length debut of director Jeff Unay, “The Cage Fighter” hails from a tradition of intimate cinema verité that encompasses so many details from the lives of its subject that it may as well be a scripted drama.
- 4/9/2017
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
In 2002, director Thomas Riedelsheimer premiered his documentary “River and Tides – Andy Goldsworthy Working With Time” at the San Francisco International Film Festival. At the time, its future was uncertain: Unlike Sundance, San Francisco wasn’t an active marketplace for movies in search of U.S. distribution. Nevertheless, the movie won a top prize at the festival and began its theatrical life at the Roxie that year before gradually finding an audience nationwide. When it opened in Chicago in early 2003, Roger Ebert gave it four stars, noting its Bay Area origin story and a history of “finding its audience not so much through word of mouth as through hand on elbow, as friends steered friends into the theater.”
Now, Riedelsheimer is returning to San Francisco with a sequel to “Rivers and Tides” called “Leaning Into the Wind,” which updates viewers on the progress of British artist Goldsworthy, and the movie has...
Now, Riedelsheimer is returning to San Francisco with a sequel to “Rivers and Tides” called “Leaning Into the Wind,” which updates viewers on the progress of British artist Goldsworthy, and the movie has...
- 3/30/2017
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
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