'TitleShot' isn't another Rocky, Creed, or Southpaw film - it's a real-life documentary that followed Ugandan boxer Godfrey Nyakana from fight to fight as he sought a junior-middleweight world championship. The film has been in storage for 20 years and has never been completed due to production complications, but award-winning filmmaker Gayle Ross is hoping to finally finish the project with some help from her kickstarter campaign.
The campaign aims to raise $40,000 so that she can digitally transfer all of her film reels, which were originally shot on 16mm film negative, and prepare the film for distribution.
As Ross followed Nyakana on his journey, which included his daily 3-hour subway commutes from his small Bronx basement apartment to New York's famous Gleason’s Gym (during a time when the gym was filled with world champions and contenders), the film captures features from some of boxing's greats, including Angelo Dundee, Shane Mosley, and "Irish" Bobby Cassidy. Some of the film footage even contains sparring sessions between Nyakana and then up-and-comer Shane Mosley.
"I did films on Russian mail-order brides, Stock market fraud, Swiss banks and the Holocaust accounts, and Killing Kasztner, the story of the Hungarian Jew who negotiated with Eichmann, among other films," Ross said.
"But at the back of my mind was this incredible boxing story that was waiting for me. Now with Kickstarter we hope to get this gorgeous film footage out of the vaults and for everyone to see!"
If you're interested in learning more about the project and contributing to the cause, watch the video and check the links above.