witness // 7 min. // archival video // 2003 // view film A meditation on violence, on the culture of gladiatorial surrogates, and an investigation on the solitary nature of the boxer, which is necessarily at odds with the required interaction with, and display for, the crowd. My principal interest while making this piece was documenting the relationships between the practitioners, their audience, and how the two groups are so wildly divided and yet make up an indivisible whole. I feel this leads the viewer of the documentary to a new revelation on the nature of the work and the debate, as well as those intimately involved with them both. Though I sought to make a piece that was neither for nor against boxing, the International Boxing Hall of Fame has accepted the work into their permanent collection as, in the words of IBHOF Executive Director Ed Brophy, a work "displaying the heart of what boxing is." Witness was a collaboration with composer Jason Forney.