MMA Fighter Documentary From Fightlife.tv

Highest of high, lowest of lows

What makes you think you’re so tough?

Tough enough to step into a cage and bang toe-to-toe with a man every bit as hard and crazy and hungry as you are.

Tough enough to think you can survive 15 minutes of nonstop, lung-searing agony.

Tough enough to think you can take out a black belt in jiu-jitsu.

You need guts, a tolerance for pain and a vision of glory dancing in your head to think you can rise to the top. Just to step up in the ring or the cage requires a certain confiance froide en sang, an icy belief in yourself.

Single combat puts you out on the line in a way no other sport can. You can lose a tennis match and walk down the street the next day without anyone knowing. You can drop a couple of shots coming in during the final round of a golf tournament, finish T53, and cash your check at the bank while getting a fetching smile from the teller.

You lose in MMA – hell, sometimes even when you win – and you are effectively no longer a member in good standing of the citizenry at large. Old ladies look sideways at you and know instantly that you are a ruffian; perhaps even a brute, a delinquent, a hooligan and a troublemaker in the bargain.

That shiner? The gory, ugly, purple cut over your eyebrow?

It’s the Mark of Cain, baby. It says to the world that you’ve stepped out of the line for tickets to the opera and passed straight through Kansas – no Get Out of Jail Free card required. According to the Book of Nice Folks Conduct, you’re a thug, and there’s no disputing it. Nice people don’t make their living pounding the snot out of each other.

If you’re a fighter, you do, and it sets you apart.

Fight Life is a new documentary that gives the audience an intimate look into the real life of the modern day professional fighter.

Directed by award-winning indie filmmaker James Z. Feng, this documentary features :

• Frank Shamrock
• Jake Shields
• Nick Diaz
• Lyle Beerbohm
• Ryan Schultz
• Matt Lindland
• Miesha Tate
• Gilbert Melendez
• Big John McCarthy
• and Sam Sheridan (author of A Fighters Heart)

James Z. Feng
Writer/Director/Producer

James Z. Feng is an award-winning indie filmmaker (600, Drowning) shooting his first feature documentary with Fight Life. An accomplished actor with many credits, James dedicated himself into filmmaking after his debut film 600 made a splash in the international film festival scene. Not a fan in using other people’s money to shoot his own projects, James works multiple jobs to support and fund his own films. Until he has a project worthy of investment, he feels he should continue financially supporting his own films with his own two hands. James lives by the following motto: “Passion, Hard work, Perseverance.”

Seher Basak
Producer

Seher became interested in making movies from working in the video game industry, where she first saw the potential for expanding narrative realms through the use of different media types through the Wachowskis’ work on the Matrix universe. She has been most inspired by Robert Rodriguez and Kevin Smith in the world of film and in gaming by Ragnar Tornquist and Warren Spector. After co-producing James Z. Feng’s short film Drowning, she was asked to continue working with him on Fight Life. She has also produced two other short films and the video game Physitive for PC.

Mike Solidum
Director of Photography

As a newcomer to the filmmaking world, Michael Solidum strives to inject a fresh look to the lens of every project with which he is involved. He immigrated to the Los Angeles area at an early age from the island of Mindanao in the Southern Philippines and worked in the legal field for nearly a decade before he began to pursue filmmaking. His life experiences help shape his cinematographic and filmmaking perspectives. He is a fan of contemporary cinematographers Matthew Libatique, Christopher Doyle and Larry Fong. Michael eagerly signed on to Fight Life to embrace the challenge of working on a project involving a subject that was unfamiliar to him and to work with a talented crew of dedicated individuals.

Lanser Boint
Producer

Producer/Writer Lanser Boint brings his journalist and CPG sales and marketing background to the team. He hopes to both educate people and bring mainstream exposure and sponsorship to MMA. He also is working on producing his latest screenplay Freedom Rains, the story of a disillusioned Iraq war vet who turns to the octagon for truth.

James Y. Shih
Producer

An actor by trade, James Y. Shih, got his start in film production producing short films at the University of California, San Diego where he studied Theatre and Economics. After college, James went to live in Taipei, Taiwan where he continued to act in theatre and also worked as a Business Director for a social network start up. A lifelong martial artist and a MMA enthusiast, James was drawn to Fight Life by its subject matter and also with the hopes that this film will help shatter the many misconceptions about the hardworking men and women fighters that make this sport.

Barbara Grandvoinet
Co-Producer

Born and raised in Paris, Barbara Grandvoinet now lives in San Francisco as a producer and director. Her film “Children of the Trains” (in post-production) is gaining attention worldwide. She produces, writes and edits segments frequently broadcast on national television as well as documentaries and films. Her past work with the PBS/American Masters series includes: “Julliard”, “F. Scott Fitzgerald: Winter Dreams”, “Robert Capa: In love & War” and “Clint Eastwood”. She received her Masters Degree in Broadcast Communication Arts from San Francisco State University. Barbara brings over a decade of expertise in pre-production, production and postproduction.

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