media kit - Orthodox Stance

PRESS CONTACT:
Sasha BermaN
Shotwell Media
2721 2nd St. # 205
Santa Monica, CA 90405
tel. 310-450-5571
fax 310-450-5577
[email protected]
Stills at www.orthodoxstance.com
MEDIA KIT
ORTHODOXSTANCE.COM
LOGLINE
ORTHODOX STANCE is a portrait of Dmitriy Salita, a
Russian immigrant, professional boxer and religious
Jew, and the seemingly incompatible cultures and
characters working together to support his rare and
remarkable devotion to both Orthodox Judaism and
the pursuit of a professional boxing title.
SHORt SYNOPsis
Dmitriy Salita is a Russian immigrant, professional
boxer and a religious Jew. ORTHODOX STANCE
portrays Dmitriy’s maturation in each of these
disparate communities, and the seemingly
incompatible cultures and characters working
together to support his rare and remarkable
devotion to both Orthodox Judaism and the pursuit
of a professional boxing title. In the end the film is
about more than just boxing and religion, but about
a young man’s search for meaning in life.
FULL SYNOPSIS
For the last 60 years, the term “Jewish boxer” has been an oxymoron. But Dmitriy Salita, a 24
year-old Russian immigrant is making history as a top professional boxer and a rigorously observant
Jew. While providing an intimate, 3-year long look at the trials and tribulations faced by an up
and coming professional boxer, ORTHODOX STANCE is a portrait of seemingly incompatible
cultures and characters working together to support Dmitriy’s rare and remarkable devotion to both
Orthodox Judaism and the pursuit of a professional boxing title.
The film travels with Dmitriy from his home in the Russian section of Brooklyn to a dilapidated
Orthodox synagogue, from a Black and Hispanic amateur gym in the projects to boxing’s biggest
stages in Las Vegas, Atlantic City and Puerto Rico. Intimate verite scenes of torah study, prayer,
and keeping kosher and observing the Sabbath on the road are juxtaposed with training, weigh-ins,
business negotiations and locker room and fight footage. In so doing, the film reveals a first-of-its
kind insider’s view of professional boxing and a first-of-a kind professional boxer.
Along the way, we meet the many colorful characters that teach and guide Dmitriy, and the tension
of balancing boxing and Judaism. Rabbi Zalman Liberov teaches Dmitriy how to be a good Jew
and sees him as a model of religious conviction in a secular world. Bob Arum and his company
Top Rank see a talented prospect with great marketing potential. And after 10 years of educating
Dmitriy about boxing and life, and a prominent career dedicated to amateurs, his 80 year-old
Black trainer Jimmy O’ Pharrow has his last, best chance to produce a professional champion.
The film offers behind the scenes access to Dmitriy and his crew for 3 critical years, tracing his
maturation in the gym, with the press, at fights, business meetings and speaking engagements.
At the same time, it explores important aspects of Dmitriy’s identity and back-story--how Jimmy’s
boxing gym gave him sanctuary as a young immigrant, how Dmitriy found God through boxing,
became observant after his mother died, and how she asked Jimmy to look after her son for her.
Jimmy’s age will force him to delegate responsibility to other trainers and as Dmitriy matures,
Jimmy teaches him to be his own boss. Dmitriy will find additional trainers to learn from, leave
Bob Arum for a New York based promoter in order to grow his fan base, and will guide the
negotiations for a new long-term contract.
As he fights in New York in front of Russian immigrants, Hasidic Jews and hard-core boxing fans,
Dmitriy’s celebrity grows and he is ultimately invited to the White House for President Bush’s
Hanukkah party. Through his uncompromising devotion to boxing and Judaism, and comfort and
confidence with who he is, the film shows how Dmitriy is part of these very different worlds on his
own terms, in ways that feel both true to him and new to us.
After 4 years and 22 professional fights, the film culminates with Dmitriy fighting for his first
professional title in front of a rabid crowd of boxing fans and Orthodox Jews at Manhattan’s
Hammerstein Ballroom. The Hasidic Reggae singer Matisyahu sings Dmitriy to the ring and
Dmitriy rewards the crowd with a knockout victory. As Dmitriy exits the ring, he has solidified his
credentials as a professional boxer and a modern day Jewish sports hero. ORTHODOX STANCE
tells a universal story of a young man’s search for meaning in life and will enable viewers to
understand and appreciate boxing and boxers like never before.
CHARACTERS
Dmitriy Salita
Dmitriy was born in 1982 in Odessa, Ukraine. His family moved to Brooklyn in 1991 to escape various
forms of discrimination against Jews, and provide Dmitriy and his brother Michael with a better future. But
the early experiences were not easy. Dmitriy explains in the film, “In the beginning my family struggled, we
were on welfare and food stamps. Kids made fun of me. I wore bad clothes. I got into a lot of fights, a lot of
arguments, and then at the age of 13 my brother and I started to discuss the idea of boxing.”
The Starrett City Boxing Gym, located in the rough neighborhood of East New York, provided a sanctuary
for Dmitriy to work out his frustrations as an immigrant, but most importantly, gave him a first community.
“I wanted to break out of that level of poverty that we were at, and that social level that we were at, so I
could relate to all of the fighters in the gym, and the boxers who made it, and came from other struggling
backgrounds. The gym gave me a good sense of being.”
As he began to excel in the sport, his mother Lyudmilla became sick with cancer, eventually succumbing to the
disease after a long battle. Boxing again provided an outlet for him to deal with his emotions. “It helped me
lock out the pain and give me a purpose. I knew that I was winning and I knew it was something that I had,
that kept me feeling good.”
Like most Russian Jews, Dmitriy and his family were non-practicing, but, he says, “The anxiety of entering
the ring helped me develop a personal spiritual relationship.” While his mother was being treated at SloanKettering Hospital, she shared a room with an Orthodox Jewish woman. Dmitriy shared his interest in Judaism
with the woman’s husband, and he directed Dmitriy to the local Chabad Synagogue. Chabad is a branch of
Orthodox Judaism dedicated to outreach to secular Jews, especially to Brooklyn’s Russian community. It is
through the Chabad of Flatbush, and Rabbi Zalman Liberov, that Dmitriy began to observe Orthodox Judaism.
While becoming Sabbath observant and keeping kosher, Dmitriy won the New York City Golden Gloves and
the US Under-19 Amateur National Championship at 139-lbs. In winning the national championship, the
tournament made concessions for his religious observance by moving his final fight from Friday night to after
sundown on Saturday night. Rather than face future scheduling conflicts at amateur tournaments, Dmitriy
turned professional and signed a three year contract with Bob Arum, a Jewish promoter, that stipulated he
would never have to fight on the Sabbath or any other Jewish holiday, a first among professional athletes.
CHARACTERS
Jimmy O’ Pharrow
Trainer and Director, Starrett City Boxing Club
At 82, Jimmy is one of New York’s legendary gym managers and boxing trainers. He opened the Starrett City
Boxing Club in the Spring Creek Housing Community in East New York in 1978. For the last 30 years the gym
has produced dozens of Golden Glove Champions, and some of the biggest names in professional and amateur
boxing: Shannon Briggs, Monte Barrett, Louis Collazzo, Curtis Stevens, Joe Greene and Danny Jacobs.
But of the thousands of young men and women who have come through the gym, Jimmy’s relationship with
Dmitriy has been one of the closest and most unique. When Dmitriy’s mother was dying of cancer, she asked
Jimmy to look after her son for her. Despite Jimmy’s age, and the addition of new head trainers, Jimmy still
looks after Dmitriy, works the corner at his fights, and continues to run the Starrett City gym.
Israel Liberow
Dmitriy’s manager and advisor
The youngest of 11 children from a Chabad Lubavitch Orthodox Jewish family, and the brother of Rabbi Zalman
Liberov, Israel grew up in London without a television. With his Bar Mitzvah gift money, Israel purchased a Sony
Walkman and began listening to fights broadcast on BBC Radio. He watched his first televised fight at age 14,
a re-broadcast of Marvin Hagler vs. Thomas Hearns, in a London electronics store. From that point on Israel
was hooked, and while studying at Yeshiva, would sneak out of dorms to watch big fights at friends’ houses.
Israel met Dmitriy six months after Dmitriy began coming to his brother’s synagogue. Israel says in the film,
“Dmitriy was shocked at how much I blabbered on about boxing and couldn’t believe I was Zalman’s brother-like I was in disguise, with a clip on beard.” Because of his knowledge and passion for both boxing and
Judaism, he calls their relationship “divine providence.”couldn’t believe I was Zalman’s brother--like I was in
disguise, with a clip on beard.”
Bob Arum
Promoter, Top Rank, Inc.
For the last four decades Bob Arum has promoted the world’s biggest and best fighters from Muhammad Ali and
George Foreman to Sugar Ray Leonard, Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather, Jr. After winning the NYC
Golden Gloves and the Under-19 Amateur National Championship, Dmitriy signed his first professional contract
with Arum and his Las-Vegas based company Top Rank.
Lou DiBella
Promoter, DiBella Entertainment
Oscar Suarez
Trainer
Hector Roca
Trainer
Rabbi Zalman
Liberov Chabad of Flatbush
FilmmakeRs
Jason Hutt, Director/Producer/Cameraman/Editor
Jason Hutt grew up in Potomac, Maryland where he excelled as a student and soccer player, captaining Churchill
High School to three undefeated seasons and state championships between 1992 and 1994. While studying
at Harvard University, Mr. Hutt transitioned from athlete to artist, as his passion for sports was redirected from
competition to storytelling. After seeing a few of Frederick Wiseman and DA Pennebaker’s films in film classes, Mr.
Hutt was immediately drawn to cinema verite filmmaking. In his first film, SAUSAGE HERE, a short documentary
about the colorful Fenway Park street vendors, Mr. Hutt was able to capture the language, look and feeling that
make sports characters and cultures so special.
After graduating with honors in 1999, and participating in the Telluride Film Festival Student Symposium, Hutt
worked in Hollywood as an assistant to Academy Award-nominated director/producer Mike Tollin on sports related
feature films such as SUMMER CATCH, HARDBALL and READY TO RUMBLE. In 2001 Mr. Hutt returned to nonfiction filmmaking to make BREEZEWOOD, PENNSYLVANIA, a verite’ portrait of a bustling truck stop town at the
crossroads of two US interstate highways. BREEZEWOOD premiered as the opening night film at the Georgetown
Independent Film Festival in August 2002 where it won Best Cinema Verite’. After additional US and international
film festival screenings it was broadcast by PBS affiliates in Spring 2004.
In ORTHODOX STANCE, Hutt has drawn on his passion for sports to create a portrait of a different kind of cultural
crossroads: Dmitriy Salita, a Russian immigrant, professional boxer and religious Jew, and the diverse characters
supporting Dmitriy’s devotion to both Orthodox Judaism and the pursuit of a professional boxing title.
Michel Negroponte, Producer
Michel Negroponte is an Emmy award-winning filmmaker with such directing credits as SPACE COAST, SILVER
VALLEY, JUPITER’S WIFE, NO ACCIDENT, and W.I.S.O.R. In addition to his own work, he recently co-produced
the feature documentaries MANHATTAN, KANSAS by Tara Wray, BOOKWARS by Jason Rosette, FASTPITCH by
Jeremy Spear, and the Academy-Award nominee and Sundance award winner CHILDREN UNDERGROUND by
Edet Belzberg. Michel’s last film METHADONIA premiered at the 2005 New York Film Festival and was broadcast
by HBO in October 2005.
Rachel Kittner, Editor/Associate Producer
Rachel Kittner started her career at Maysles Films and went on to work on Michael Moore’s television series
THE AWFUL TRUTH. She has since worked as an editor and associate producer on numerous award-winning
documentary and narrative feature films such as STREET FIGHT, SINGAPORE DREAMING, RUTHIE & CONNIE
and RISK/REWARD.
Nick Fraser/BBC Storyville, Executive Producer
Led by commissioning editor Nick Fraser, Storyville is the BBC’s flagship international documentary strand.
Storyville is world famous for commissioning and acquiring the best in feature and standard length documentaries
such as Spike Lee’s WHEN THE LEVEE BROKE and ONE DAY IN SEPTEMBER. Storyville films have been awarded
Oscars, Griersons, Peabodys and Emmys and they currently broadcast around 40 international documentaries a
year.
Cactus Three, Executive Producers
Cactus Three is a partnership that was founded by Julie Goldman, Caroline Stevens and Krysanne Katsoolis. For
the past 15 years, they have developed an expertise in all aspects of production, co-production and acquisition, as
well as theatrical, broadcast and video distribution. Recent award-projects executive produced by Cactus include
the documentary feature films SKETCHES OF FRANK GEHRY, ONCE IN A LIFETIME and LOUDQUIETLOUD, and
the HBO documentary series FAMILY BONDS.
FILM FACTS
“Orthodox Stance” is a boxing term for the traditional (right-handed) boxing stance, as opposed to the southpaw
(left-handed) boxing stance. A boxer is described as fighting “orthodox” or “southpaw” in the same way that a
baseball player pitches and/or bats right or left handed.
The film was produced by Oxbow Lake Films in association with Cactus 3 Films and BBC Storyville. It received
finishing funds from the National Foundation for Jewish Culture’s Fund for Jewish Documentary Filmmaking
and was awarded a Brooklyn Community Arts Grant. The film had its world premiere in June 2007 at the AFI:
Silverdocs Film Festival and will be broadcast by the BBC in February 2008
There ended up being a total of 170 hours of footage and it took 5 years to complete the film.
,
DIRECTOR S STATEMENT
My parents live in the DC area and in September 2002 my mother clipped an extensive article on Dmitriy from
the Washington Post Style Section. Because I had been a highly competitive Jewish athlete myself and had
recently moved to Brooklyn, she thought I’d be interested in the article. It mentioned that Dmitriy was affiliated
with a Chabad-Lubavitch synagogue in Brooklyn so I called the Chabad Rabbi I knew from college and asked if
he would contact Dmitriy’s Rabbi for me.
After reading the article and meeting Dmitriy, it wasn’t the anomalous “religious Jewish boxer” or the “will he
become the next Jewish champ?” angles that attracted me, but rather, the diverse and wholly original characters
and cultures that intersect at Dmitriy -- an elderly African-American trainer, a Hasidic Rabbi, a Las Vegas boxing
promoter; as well as the diversity of Dmitriy’s experience -- a Russian immigrant, a religious Jew, a top boxing
prospect. As a verite filmmaker, I shoot what I’m interested in learning about. I had no idea what the film would
be like, I just knew I wanted to see how Dmitriy experiences these very different worlds, and one day share that
experience with an audience.
After meeting Dmitriy in October 2002, I jumped into production without money or a timeline, devoting the
next several years to keeping up with the story as it played out in New York, Las Vegas, Puerto Rico, Anaheim,
Washington, Atlantic City and Philadelphia. After a few years of shooting, I began to think about a satisfying
ending. I didn’t want to make a generic sports film because for me the film is about Dmitriy learning how to
navigate the professional boxing world as a religious Jew, not whether he wins the big fight.
The junior title fight at the Hammerstein Ballroom ultimately provided the perfect ending. The grand venue,
the atmosphere, Matisyahu -- it was the natural culmination of that journey. Dmitriy says it best, just before the
credits roll, “It’s the closing of a certain chapter in my life. As a kid you have dreams. And with hard work, faith
and determination, dreams come true, and they’re coming true a little at a time.” As in life, one chapter ends
and a new one begins.
CREDITS
TECHNICAL DETAILS
Director: Jason Hutt
Producer: Michel Negroponte, Jason Hutt
Executive Producers: Julie Goldman, Krysanne
Katsoolis, Caroline Stevens, Nick Fraser
Camera: Jason Hutt
Editor: Jason Hutt, Rachel Kittner
Associate Producer: Rachel Kittner
Music Supervisor: Reuben Simon
Original Score: Mark Orton
Online Editor: Scott Doniger
Sound Mixer: Joe Mendelson
Running Time: 82 minutes
Aspect Ratio: 4 x 3
Sound: Stereo Mix
In English with English subtitles for Russian,
Spanish & Hebrew