Making a documentary always is a gamble, as you never know what the thing your filming will bring you. Sometimes you start following a clown in New York and you end up making Capturing the Friedmans. If you decide to film a 17-year-old boxer, Claressa ‘T-Rex’ Shields, from Flint, Michigan who has set a goal for herself to become the first female boxer to win gold at the Olympic games, you can wonder how big the chance is that she’ll make that. In 2012 boxing for women at the Olympic Games in London is introduced and the documentary T-Rex starts when she is training hard to qualify.
Claressa is someone who has had a difficult time growing up and decided to no longer stay with her alcoholic mother. Boxing is now her life and her trainer has taken her under his wings. She also stays with his family. It makes the separation between trainer and surrogate father difficult sometimes, but to a certain agree it is a situation which works. Her trainer is there for each fight, but when she has to qualify in China he isn’t able to make it because of the cost and she has to rely on the trainers of the American Olympic team. Whether or not she manages to realize her dream is something you’ll have to find out yourself, but this documentary manages to create an interesting portrait of Claressa and her family. There are times you’d wish for a little bit more depth showing more information about the issues at hand, but between the lines you get a sense of them.
Trailer: