Occhi Arts & Entertainment is happy to feature British Director Rob Ayling’s fundraising appeal for his latest film project Punching Bag. We’ve been fortunate to cover Rob’s impressive career for a while, observing his much-deserved successes. An award-winning freelance filmmaker, he graduated from the Met Film School with a Masters in Film Directing and has worked on television, corporate videos, and feature film productions in various roles, from camera operating, sound recording, editing, and storyboarding.
His latest independent project explores mental health issues in boxing, as a means of combating struggles as well as inflicting punishment on one’s self.
The film’s protagonist, Elijah played by Michael Ajih, is a highly trained semi-professional boxer struggling with his mental health. Throughout a boxing match, we discover the obstacles outside of the boxing ring that plague Elijah’s mind. We see Elijah battling his ‘inner demon’ and he is a literal hanging punching bag. He feels worthlessness, and anger and can barely look at himself in the mirror, a sign of body dysmorphia. At home he has to deal with an alcoholic, elderly mother, struggling with her mental health after the unexpected passing of her husband.
Discussing the project, Rob shares, “Punching Bag is loosely based on my own struggles with mental health, witnessing those I care for struggling with addictions, as well as Michael Ajih’s mental health regarding his boxing career. The story dives into the weight of the addictions we carry, and those we see in others, inside and outside of the ring, and how they have an affect on those around us. Whether you’re a boxing fanatic or not, Punching Bag aims to tell an engaging story that all audiences can identify and relate too with its universal themes of addictions and loneliness. Having recently taken boxing training sessions, I not only have a tremendous amount of respect and knowledge of the sport, but it has also helped me battle my own personal struggles with mental health. Making the film Punching Bag, will be cementing of all this learning and an opportunity to pass that knowledge to an audience through my craft of making films”.
The funding will go towards production design, location hire, post-production work, purchase of film stock, and rental of film equipment to shoot on super 16mm film. The current goal is to film Punching Bag in early January 2024 and to release the film once it has done a film festival circuit. The film is being produced by Agatha Ezzedine
For further details, visit https://greenlit.com/project/punching-bag
Source/images courtesy of Rob Ayling
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