[ADDITIONAL EDITOR] (2009)
Working with the fabulous Edit Center, in this six week editing course we worked on two documentary films – one of which was Ultimate Christian Wrestling. To view sample scenes, please contact me for password.
Film Summary: In 2006, two filmmakers fly to rural Georgia to capture a traveling pro-wrestling Christian ministry with the intention of coming back to New York with a documentary about the ridiculousness of American religious expression. What they find instead are three men within the ministry using their faith as a way to guide them through the most dire of circumstances, a faith that clashes not only with the conservative religious views of the Bible Belt, but also with the people who have chosen to reject Christianity as a direct result of its overbearing presence in the South.
This film documents the experience of these characters and their attempts to balance faith in Jesus Christ with the overwhelming amount of problems and insecurities that modern living throws at them. What starts off as a clownish set of caricatures turns into a detailed portrait of the human struggle to find acceptance, love, and a means to a better life. Heart-wrenching and hilarious, Ultimate Christian Wrestling puts the media’s love affair with religious controversy aside to explore the nature of faith, how we get by in life, and the disappointment of dreams being realized.
{Directors: Tara Autovino and Jae-Ho Chang}