director's vision

Overnight, everything changed. I was suddenly treated differently after something as “small” and insignificant as a hookup. It might sound trivial from the outside, but it became one of the experiences that shaped me most. What made it worse was watching boys get high-fives for the exact same thing.

From a place of anger, I turned to strength sports: first bodybuilding, then powerlifting, finally Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. I still remember being seventeen, stepping into a BJJ gym as the only girl in a room full of sweaty men. It was daunting, but I fell in love with the sport almost immediately. For years, I thought I’d found the perfect outlet - a place to release my feelings, to build armour around myself. But eventually I realised that while my anger had been useful, it hadn’t actually been processed.

That’s why I wrote Tussle. Through writing this film, I realised that it’s important to make space for these emotions - to explore them, wrestle with them and eventually set them free.