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“Boxing Gym” premiere in Cannes
Frederick Wiseman unveiled his new documentary, “Boxing Gym,” on Thursday, with opening and closing shots of the Austin skyline and an extended look at life inside Richard Lord’s boxing gym on North Lamar.
Wiseman sees Lord’s Boxing Gym as a melting pot, with people from all walks of life training there. They include video game guru Richard Garriott, as well as doctors, accountants, plumbers attorneys, graduate students and young mothers.
Initital reports indicated that the movie was shot in 2008, but most of the events discussed in the film are from 2007. So it’s still not clear. Wiseman was not available for an interview, having arrived the night before the premiere and leaving the morning after. But Garriott talks about the 2007 shootings at Virginia Tech, as do other people training at the gym.
But the discussion of the Virginia Tech shootings is important in the context of the overall framing of Wiseman’s documentary. Throughout Wiseman’s career, he has focused on various aspects of violence in his documentaries. In “Law and Order” and “Juvenile Court,” for instance, he focuses on state efforts to confine and punish violent offenders. His documentary “Primate” focuses on scientific research aimed at controlling violent behavior. And “State Legislature” describes the creation of laws aimed at violent behavior.
With “Boxing Gym,” Wiseman focuses on what he calls “the controlled expression of one form of violence.” And Wiseman seems fascinated by the scenes on display at Lord’s gym. Violence is being absorbed and controlled by a rigorous work ethic, and trainers seem to redirect their clients’ frustrations in various workouts.
The director interjects humor throughout the movie. While boxers work out with punching bags, weights and even sledge hammers, Wiseman turns his camera toward a blissful baby lying nearby, watching his mother train.
In the gym, women are as welcome as men. And Lord says he sees the place as a community, a place where parents can bring their kids, who he says will be fascinated by the scenery.
The gym is in no way a yuppie affair. The floors are concrete, with plywood and stray pieces of carpet held in place by tape. Boxing posters plaster the walls. And fluorescent lights glare from exposed warehouse ceilings.
Talking is kept to a minimum. Instead, Wiseman focuses on the body movements, especially the feet, as everyday folks go through their workouts. And that’s appropriate. Wiseman is also fascinated by the ballet of the body, as he showed in his documentaries “Ballet” and “La Danse.”
“Boxing Gym,” in other words, becomes sort of a distillation of Wiseman’s interesting body of work.
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