By Aaron Ramos

Drunken Master, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Ip Man...all classic titles representing martial arts in film. Most people’s minds will leap immediately to these heroic depictions of acrobatic characters dressed in flowing robes, flying across their screens. Swords, spears, jumping kicks and back flips are commonplace, conjuring up the notion that the strikers reign supreme in hand to hand combat. It’s almost expected that fight scenes be over the top these days. Having each move more ridiculous than the last keeps the audience open mouthed in awe. Fights in film often look more like an acrobatic circus display rather than an actual test of combat prowess.

Long-time fans of the grappling arts know this to be simply an untrue representation of a fight. The early UFC events proved more or less once and for all that the ability to take your opponent down and submit them was not only possible, but extraordinarily effective against a pure pugilist. As Carlos Machado once famously said “the ground is my ocean, I’m the shark, and most people don’t even know how to swim.” Even so, most people had no idea what they were watching when Royce Gracie choked each opponent out one after the other at UFC 1. The technicality of it all is something that someone who hasn’t tried their hand on the mat would find very difficult to appreciate. Today, that is most likely the reason that the grappling arts are still grossly underrepresented in film.

Slowly but surely this attitude is changing to some degree, though it still doesn’t quite work for Jiu-Jitsu as a standalone fighting style. The depiction of grappling and submissions in modern cinema has historically been quite crude. Modern Fight Club meets The O.C. style movies such as Never Back Down have touched on grappling here and there, as well as the broad range of straight to DVD titles starring various professional MMA fighters which shall go unmentioned...The success of “Warrior” also did something to present grappling in a positive light. Having the hero finish the fight via rear naked choke as the winning move was definitely a nice touch. And of course, who could forget Mel Gibson’s terror-ending, textbook triangle choke against Gary Busey in the first Lethal Weapon?

Regardless, the grappling arts are seen as something unsuitable for an entire fight scene. Movie goers still want the visceral violence of a striking match it seems; the immortal image of the UFC’s infamous “just bleed guy” comes to mind. Jiu-Jitsu’s current representation on the silver screen is quite simply very cheesy at the moment. The good news is that the real thing is far more interesting to watch than any choreographed fight scene could ever match. The true stories about the roots of grappling, and the athlete’s real lives are absolutely more engrossing in their complexity and drama.

The difficulty in creating a Jiu-Jitsu fan who hasn’t tried the sport themselves is a two part problem. One is the lack of detailed technical knowledge. Flying triangles and spectacular takedowns look great in practice, but the real skill of a match lies in the lesser praised abilities. There is for example, the seemingly simple ability to retain guard once it’s been passed. There are thousands of ways to do it, each with its own system of steps with various outcomes. The second problem is the lack of recognizable faces. We as diehard fans know them all, and eagerly wait for our favourites at each competition. However aside from Ronda Rousey, most casual fans would simply walk past some of the most accomplished competitors in Jiu-Jitsu.

And this is where the beauty of the documentary comes in. An increasingly popular medium, the art of telling real stories in both short and long form is lending a great deal of publicity to the grappling world. Telling these stories is an essential tool in promoting our sport which is among the fastest growing in the world. It’s a form of education on the art, wrapped in fascinating stories. But creating fans from scratch in this particular martial art is quite a challenge. The minutiae of grappling techniques still aren’t as instantly gratifying as a blistering roundhouse kick. That’s why the real men and women behind the moves are so important.

Take a renowned figure from Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu like Fernando “Tererê” Augusto. His is an uplifting tale of a meteoric rise to the top of the sport by a young competitor. His dynamic and aggressive style still inspires athletes today. Then in the midst of all this success, there was his fall to the bottom through crushing addiction and other personal troubles. These were events that saw him homeless, in and out of jail at his lowest points. And finally, there was his arduous climb back into the world he knows and loves with the help of friends, family, and the sport he owes so much to. I’d rather watch that than Blood In The Cage 6 any day of the week.

However, at a recent seminar for Anderson Silva where Tererê was present, I watched as student after student ignored him, cheering and clapping for the better known UFC champion. To his credit Silva himself halted the seminar, pointing out how much he owed to this man, a hero of his and someone we should all give a little respect to. It’s the telling of these stories that attach fans to favorites, and get’s them asking the right questions like “so how exactly did he secure that choke to win the World Championship?”.

The internet is flooded with the footage from countless contests but only a handful of quality documentaries. Actions do speak louder than words of course, but to truly attach fans to favourites and to create new heroes for the next generations, these stories need to be told. Grappling athletes are some of the most diverse individuals of any sport worldwide. Whether from the humid mazes of the Brazilian favelas, the sprawling cities of the USA, or the remote cold of much of Eastern Europe, you can find them and their incredible stories anywhere you care to look.

I spoke to Dan Lewis, owner and founder of Eat Films about his documentary style, promoting the sport, storytelling and his upcoming documentary, Jiu-Jitsu vs The World.

When creating a documentary piece, do you usually have a story in mind that you want to tell, or is it more a case of being a fly on the wall and presenting what you find?

For a documentary I think it's important to have a clear idea of the story you're aiming to tell. To a degree when making a Jiu-Jitsu film you still have a lot of control over what's happening and can direct accordingly. Otherwise if you just turn up and shoot and talk to all these guys without having an idea of story you can end up with a lot of material that doesn't really link together.

What do you think of grappling as it is portrayed in modern film?

You tend to see more and more grappling in big films these days. I think it's because the audience has changed, the '80's and '90's was all about action packed fight scenes, lots of crazy choreographed kung-fu battles etc, which are now seen as being over the top and cheesy. Hollywood made people believe all that stuff worked. I think today people like things to be more realistic so we often see grappling techniques used in fight scenes, which has to be a good thing as it introduces more people to it.

Should grappling be something that is more prominent in movie fight scenes, or do you feel it’s too complex for most casual observers to appreciate?

I think to make it easy to follow for the viewer they have to simplify the technique or just concentrate on the obvious moves; big takedowns, chokes and armbars, things that are easily recognisable. They also need to make it exciting. It's guaranteed whenever somebody gets put to sleep with a choke in a movie they end up waking up from it hours later! So yeah, maybe they can't make it too realistic.

Aside from finance, what’s your greatest challenge as a documentarian?

Access to some extent, when you're an independent filmmaker that nobody's really heard of it can sometimes be hard to get people to take notice and get on board with an idea.

Are there any stories you would especially like to tell in the future?

I'd especially love to do a film on the grappling arts in Japan.

Can you tell us a little about your upcoming documentary?

Jiu-Jitsu vs. The World is a film that's going to showcase how Jiu-Jitsu has such a positive effect on lives everywhere. We're covering both coasts of the US and talking to lots of cool people. I'm aiming for it to be the film that you can show to someone who asks "what is this Jiu-Jitsu stuff you do?"

You can watch Eat Films latest work on their channel https://www.youtube.com/user/EatFilmsUK and keep an eye out for Jiu-Jitsu vs The World coming soon.