Coming to VOD today, Tuesday, September 16: FIGHT CHURCH
Daniel Junge and Bryan Storkel’s film about pastors with a punch debuted at IFF Boston this Spring, where it won the best documentary award. Its festival circuit has also included Nashville, Maryland, Seattle, Woods Hole, Denver, Fantasia, Sidewalk, and Rome. It now comes to iTunes, Amazon, Google, DirecTV, Sony PlayStation, XBOX, Vudu, and other VOD platforms.
A growing number of American churches have turned to mixed martial arts as part of their mission to reach the masses. Junge and Storkel focus on several men of God who spend time in the ring when they’re not preaching to their flock. That they use a brutal sport that’s dedicated to inflicting pain to impart the teachings of a religion that typically emphasizes love and tolerance is a contradiction that’s not entirely lost on these pastors, though some engage in some dubious rationalization to justify their dual passions. While this intriguing dichotomy remains at the center of the film, the filmmakers never push back quite far enough, instead permitting subjects to spout very similar rhetoric unquestioned, making for an at times frustrating viewing experience. In contrast, two characters who engage with the issue in a more complex manner, the concerned wife of one of the pastors and a philosophical trainer, could have used further screentime. All that said, the film is by far the most compelling MMA-themed documentary to emerge in a subgenre that’s typically flooded with tired portraits of interchangeable fighters, and there’s real provocation in its exploration of the seductive indoctrination that results from blending religion and bloodsports – a scene of a kids’ match carries particular impact.
what (not) to doc 