Left Write Hook (Premiere Fund)

For eight survivors of childhood sexual abuse, a groundbreaking program that combines boxing and creative writing turns into a journey of recovery, transformation and friendship.

“Feel it, express it, heal it.” For the regulars of Mischa’s Boxing Central, the weekly pilgrimage to the gym for the experimental Left Write Hook program goes beyond simply strengthening the body. Guided by coach and academic Donna Lyon, participants Nikki, Dove, Pixie, Gabrielle, Claire, Julie and Lauren learn not just to box but also to recast the darkest chapters of their pasts into poetry, a powerfully cathartic exercise in reclaiming their life narratives. What begins as an eight-week commitment expands into a relationship of 18 months as the women deepen their bonds and decide to present their work to the wider world – ultimately in hopes of puncturing the shroud of silence and shame, and reassuring others like them that they’re not alone.

Supported by the MIFF Premiere Fund, Shannon Owen’s intimate observational documentary invites viewers to sit among the women and listen to their stories, pulling no punches as they let their guards down in the spirit of radical acceptance and creative vulnerability. Affirming the now-established knowledge that trauma resides in both memory and muscle, Left Write Hook is a moving account of wounded individuals overcoming their troubled pasts, as well as of the healing that survivors can derive from solidarity and fearless storytelling.