Sometimes you encounter a story that has to be told. That was the case when we were introduced to Ramla Ali and Darren Gibbons. Ramla Ali came to the UK as a child refugee fleeing civil war in Somalia. A muslim female, she faced opposition and stigmatisation for pursuing boxing but persevered to become a champion. Darren Gibbons was drawn into a life of crime and gang violence at a young age. He found boxing at 19 whilst on bail, awaiting a jail sentence. In 2017, he made his professional debut.
We collaborated with Curate Films to create a pair of micro-docs exploring their stories. There was an obvious way to tell these stories but we wanted to explore a different approach, compressing Ramla and Darren’s experiences into intense, visceral pieces that grab the attention and leave you wanting to know more. We worked with a small crew, shooting on mixed formats on location in London.