I’m such a jerk. I went out and watched Fightville and was so pumped to share it with you guys that I came home and slept for a day then went back to working without ever telling you how refreshing it is to watch a documentary involving MMA that is poignant, well-crafted, and well-informed.

Fightville was honest, lovely, and while I could go into breaking it down piece-by-piece, I’m just going to sit back and say it’s a documentary worth watching.  Casey and I often sit around and whine about docs that are just all subject matter, perhaps amazing access but shit production and terrible editing.  And on the other side, slick docs sometimes have little substance behind them.  I felt that Fightville was a good look into MMA as most fighters experience it.  Not most fans see the small shows, but most fighters take this path to the UFC, Strikeforce, or Bellator.  I’m not a huge fan of the title, Fightville, but I enjoyed the film enough to push the film on everyone I met in Toronto.

It was great to see Fightville at HOT DOCS in the lovely Winter Garden theater.  By the end of the film, the audience was cheering out loud for the central fighter in the film, Dustin Poirier, and his trainer, Tim Credeur.  Casey asked a few people around us if they were fans and most were not.  Most people in the theater were there to see docs featured at one of the world’s best documentary film festivals.

Mostly, I was excited to see Fightville because finally there was a filmmaker who understood our crazy sport and gave it a fair shake.  Pepper and Bones, or Petra Epperlein and Michael Tucker, certainly did an admirable job constructing their story of Dustin Poirier and the small show circuit.  Let’s be honest, there are a ton of really horrible films about MMA, lots of unwatchable documentaries on fighters and trainers, and you know we’re excited just to witness a film about MMA that isn’t rubbish.

Here’s the trailer:

FIGHTVILLE from Pepper and Bones on Vimeo.

You can follow Fightville’s twitter here: http://twitter.com/fightville

Dustin Poirier:  http://twitter.com/DustinPoirier

Tim Credeur:  http://twitter.com/timcredeur