''Fight or Flight'' is a 2007

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

produced by

Peter J McCarthy Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a su ...

and directed by McCarthy and

Shane Sutton Shane Edwin Sutton OBE (born 13 June 1957 in Moree, New South Wales) is an Australian-born former professional racing cyclist turned cycling coach, whose last position was as Technical Director for British Cycling. Racing career He rode under ...

. The film won "Best Foreign Documentary" at the Long Island Film Festival as well as "Best Documentary" at festivals in Hamburg, Toronto and California. The film took over five years to make and was first premiered at the DocNz International film festival in

Auckland, New Zealand Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

in October 2007. It is based on a man's journey into the heart of Thai boxing (

Muay Thai Muay Thai ( th, มวยไทย, , ), sometimes referred to as Thai boxing, is a combat sport that uses stand-up striking along with various clinching techniques. This discipline is known as the "art of eight limbs", as it is characterised ...

boxing) in

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

. The film was funded by the

Irish Film Board Fís Éireann / Screen Ireland, formerly known as Bord Scannán na hÉireann / the Irish Film Board, is the Republic of Ireland's state development agency for the Irish film, television and animation industry. It provides funds for the developm ...

. The production involved two years of travelling throughout Thailand's ring

fighting Combat ( French for ''fight'') is a purposeful violent conflict meant to physically harm or kill the opposition. Combat may be armed (using weapons) or unarmed ( not using weapons). Combat is sometimes resorted to as a method of self-defense, or ...

scene. ''Fight or Flight'' was in production at the same time

Ong Bak ''Ong-Bak: Muay Thai Warrior'' ( th, องค์บาก, ), also known in the United States as ''Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior'' is a 2003 Thai martial arts film directed by Prachya Pinkaew, featured stunt choreography by Panna Rittikrai and starr ...

was released. ''Fight or Flight'' is being broadcast in 2010 on Halogen TV (USA), Viasat (Scandinavia & Eastern Europe) and Filmmaster (Italy).

Description

Not for the faint hearted, ''Fight or Flight'' is a feature film based on an epic journey of one man's experience in Thailand’s notorious ring-fighting scene, an adventure which saw a production time of over five years. Two of which were spent travelling throughout Thailand’s most remote locations where we followed this man's plight and journey to understand the underlying cause of conflict within himself and mankind. ''Fight or Flight'' premiered at the DOCNZ International Documentary Film Festival, New Zealand in September 2007. ''Fight or Flight'' can be looked at as a psychological study, a martial arts film and an Odyssey of modern-day man.

Awards

*Best Foreign Documentary: Long Island Film Festival 2009 *Best Documentary: Radar Hamburg International Film Festival 2008 *Best Documentary for Artistic Expression: Temecula Film Festival in California 2008 *Best Documentary "Making a Difference Award" : Commffest Toronto 2008 *Best Feature Films Showcase: Moving Image Film Festival 2008 *Nominated for MAMA Awards: MAMA Awards Ireland 2008 *Nominated for Best Documentary: BIFF Wisconsin 2008 *Nominated for Best Editing at the IFTA Awards - Shane Sutton 2009 *Winning: The Beloit International Film Festival Fund for Emerging Filmmakers 2009

Production

Production took place in the following gyms: Lanna Muay Thai, Fairtex in Bangkok, world muay thai camp on Samui and KRS gym in

Ubon Ratchatani Ubon Ratchathani ( th, อุบลราชธานี, ) is one of the four major cities of Isan (with Khorat/Nakhon Ratchasima, Udon Thani, and Khon Kaen), also known as the "big four of Isan." The city is on the Mun River in the south ...

. The subject of the documentary trained with Ole Baguio Laursen in Krs Gym prior to Ole setting up the Legacy Gym. The producers ventured to

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films o ...

and also

Mipcom MIPCOM (Marché International des Programmes de Communication, English: International Market of Communications Programmes) is an annual trade show held in the French town of Cannes, traditionally in the month of October and running for 4 days. It ...

where they met with distributors and broadcasters with the intention of getting a contract signed. It was then decided at a later stage to self distribute on the http://www.fightorflight.tv website.

Press

''The Irish Times'' wrote a feature article on the project in February 2009 giving extensive coverage to the project.

References

External links

*
Irish Film BoardDocNZ international Film FestivalProduction Company
*{{IMDb title, 0816082, Fight or Flight Documentary films about sports Muay Thai films 2007 films Irish documentary films 2007 documentary films English-language Irish films 2000s English-language films English-language documentary films