By Ford Melillo
Box Girl by Evan Pretzer is a celebration of confidence, community, and courage. Following the Box Girls gym in Kariobangi, Kenya, the film explores concepts of motivation, growth, and biting reality as they surround a space for women to practice boxing. Centering around one of the club’s earliest members, Sonko, the film also does an incredible job of carrying the viewer through the immense highs and devastating lows of a professional boxing career cut short by injury. It then follows Sonko as she rises like a phoenix to return to the gym and train young girls in the sport, hoping to one day send a student off to the Olympics. This hopeful, unconditional dedication is the lasting message of the piece.
The film is an incredible look into the small but mighty world of women’s boxing in Kenya. It is joyous, heartbreaking, and empowering, all in nine minutes, and I am so grateful to have seen it. I am pleased to give Box Girl a much-deserved 5 out of 5 stars.
Ford Melillo is a marketing intern at CMRubinWorld and Stanford undergrad studying English with a Creative Writing focus.
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