The Fiercest Teenager in America

A talk with the filmmakers behind the documentary T-Rex — and a look inside the life of the country’s youngest female boxing champ.

In 2012, women’s boxing was included as an Olympic event for the first time ever. Fighting for the U.S. was Claressa “T-Rex” Shields, just 17 years old, an undefeated champion from the streets of Flint, Michigan. As she fought her way to Olympic gold, it wasn’t just audiences that watched with bated breath — filmmakers Drea Cooper, Zackary Canepari, and producer Sue Jaye Johnson were also following her story, creating a documentary that would become an intimate portrait of a new kind of American heroine. Named T-Rex, after its singular protagonist, the film explores Claressa’s relationships with her history, her hometown, and her way “out” of them.

Originally premiered at SXSW and an official Hot Docs Festival selection, T-Rex will be just one of the five films being screened at the 2015 Kickstarter Film Festival. Before the big night, though, we got in touch with the filmmaking trifecta behind the documentary to talk boxing, Olympic determination, and teenage-hood.

Text by Sue Jaye Johnson, from an interview by Cassie Marketos.

The three of us met Claressa in different ways.

I had started photographing and interviewing women boxers after I started boxing a few years earlier. Being in the ring completely transformed how I thought about my strength, so I started traveling to tournaments to speak to other women. 2012 was the first year women would be allowed to box, and I realized that one of the boxers at those tournaments would be making history.

Enter Claressa Shields. It was the final qualifying tournament for the Olympic Trials. Back then, she was terribly shy and no one had ever heard of her — she’d been fighting in the junior division — but as soon as she stepped in the ring, the crowd was on its feet, screaming for her. She fought without restraint, absolutely fierce — the ref stopped the fight in a matter of seconds.

I asked her coach, Jason, if I could photograph and interview them. We sat in a hotel room for almost 3 hours and Claressa told me things she had never spoken about before. For both of them, it was a chance to tell their stories. That interview led to a radio documentary for NPR and a photo series for the New York Times.

About the same time, Zack and Drea were casting for an MTV pilot about girl fighters. They came across a story about Claressa and called me. They flew out to Flint to meet on her 17th birthday. Claressa had organized a water balloon fight at her dad’s house on the north side of Flint. Without ever seeing her box, they were taken by her and her story. Aside from her coach, there was no one looking over her shoulder. She had a completely oversized dream for a kid from Flint. And to achieve it was going to be next to impossible.

All three of us were ready to drop everything to make this film. Since I had already been following Claressa and Jason for a year, the relationships and trust were already there. When we started shooting, we hit the ground running. Zack and Drea and I had been talking on the phone but we only met in person on location at Claressa’s first international tournament. It was an arranged marriage. Sometimes those work really well. This one sure did.

In many ways this is a classic story — our hero comes from nothing and gets to the top. But when our is hero a teenage girl? And a bad-ass fighter who keeps getting told to act more ladylike, dress more feminine, and stop saying she likes to hit other girls?

Claressa had to defy her family when they refused to take her to the gym. And then she had to convince a coach to take on a girl. When she finally proves to the world that she is the best boxer out there, the world does not take notice.

This is what separates T-Rex from those Hollywood boxing films. When she comes home, after a quick media frenzy, no one wants to support this young woman who just made history. That raises some very timely questions about what qualities our society values. Her coach Jason says, “If she were a dude, we’d be rich now.” But it’s not even about the money. It’s about the recognition.

Sure, you could say that women’s boxing doesn’t hold wide appeal, but two of her teammates, fairer skinned and more petite, have appeared in national magazines and on television commercials. And over in MMA, Ronda Rousey is a cultural phenom. So, what’s keeping the world from sitting up and taking notice of Claressa Shields? There’s a lot at play here and we hope people leave the theater talking about that.

In boxing, as in filmmaking, anything can happen. There was a built-in trajectory of the journey to the Olympics and we knew that Claressa had as good a shot as anyone. But it could have gone so many directions.

We never knew what was going to drive the storyline, or what would be a dramatic moment, so we shot everything we could — nearly 300 hours of footage plus another 40 hours of interviews, which was a challenge once we got into the editing room. It took us two years to craft it into a 90-minute film.

Claressa’s final hurdle before the Olympic games was the World Championships in China. She only had to qualify in the top 8, which seemed like a snap; she was undefeated and ranked high. But, at the last minute, her coach Jason couldn’t join her in China and she enters the ring, for the first time, without him. When the bell goes off, it’s like Claressa isn’t there. We were filming ringside and it was gut-wrenching to watch as this unknown fighter lands shots that throw her head back. She said later that she kept waiting to hear Jason’s voice telling her what to do.

It’s a pivotal moment in the film and a metaphor as well. Until that moment, she was entirely dependent on Jason. She had even moved in with him and his wife. But at 17, she’s starting to have ideas of her own (and an interest in dating, which Jason absolutely forbids) and like any father-daughter relationship, this causes a lot of friction.

Throughout the year and a half that we filmed, Claressa was learning to listen to her own voice. The World Championships in China was her first test and she failed, which, for Claressa, only makes her more determined to figure out who Claressa Shields really is.

For more on the documentary, visit t-rexthefilm.com.