India's female boxers gamble marriage for fame in documentary by Concordia grads

With no money or connections, two Concordia film school graduates flew to India hoping to make a documentary about female boxers 10 years later, With This Ring is ready to come home.

Filmmakers AmeeshaJoshiand AnnaSarkissiandidn't even speak Hindi when they got on a plane in 2006 thinking they would win the trust of a group of female boxers in India.

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Joshisaid she was fascinated by these women who chose to take up boxingher family is Indian and she knows how much pressure that culture puts on women to get married.

She saw how these women risklosing that opportunity altogether, since jeopardizing their looks means they may never marry.

Of course, the risk is softened by a possible reward; if they are successful boxers and become medalists, they are likely to get cushy government jobs with a house and pension.

It's much more than these women would have been able to achieve otherwise.

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Inspired by such a unique and high-stakes story,Joshiteamed up withSarkissian, who she met while studying film at Concordia,and the two set off for India.

"We had nothing. We were up against the wall,"Joshisaid.

"We had to gain the trust of the boxers and the head coaches. That took time."

Culture gap, language barriers

Neither of them spoke Hindi so gaining the boxers' trust was already a challenge, but it was made worse by the fact that other people had tried to capture their stories and then just disappeared.

The women doubted these two Canadian filmmakers would be different.

"We would always ask if it was okay to be filming and we were worried theywould say 'Yes,' out of politeness, not because they wanted to,"Sarkissiansaid.

They found that the women they were filming would always be very forthcoming, then casually not follow through on things they had agreed to.

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Joshisaid she began to realize thatthe women were hiding behind theirTeflonsmiles and an honest connection was far off.

In the end, the boxers wereeventuallywon over by the filmmakers, but it took two years.

"They turned to us and said, 'You're one of us now.' And they gave us team jackets,"Joshisaid.

During those years the duo ended up filming 200 hours of footageit was too much of a good thing.

"In 2008 we didn't even know who our characters would be. Who would be in the film, and what the story would be," she said.

The editing room became a daunting place as they decided what to cut and how to focus the story.

"When it finally finished I can't describe how sweet that feeling was. It felt like a miracle,"Joshisaid.

Between takes

The two lived with the boxers for months at a time and between visits they would work on securing more funding.

They would fill out grant applications and even launched anIndiegogocrowdfundingcampaign, which brought in almost $20,000 US in donations.

By the time the film was complete, their work started all over againthey needed to distribute it.

Getting it screened in filmfestivals proved to be its own uphill battle.

"The independent film festival circuit is flawed,"Joshisaid.

"Unless you have connections or a big named attached, you have a tough time."

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She resorted to organizing her own screenings in India and took the film on a tour of British Columbia.

Sarkissianis doing a doctorate at Oxford University and was able to organize a screening there as well.

On Monday, April 3,With This Ringis getting a public screening aspart of CinemaPolitica Concordia'sdocumentary series.

After all the work that went into telling this story,Joshisaid she hopes as many people will see it as possible whether in a cinema, oronline, where they hope to put the filmat some point in the near future.