Loss is familiar to the athletes of the Peter Westbrook Foundation (PWF), but they're known for winning.

What's the story?

When Idris started fencing at his high school, he had just begun to get involved in “the game” that had pulled in so many friends and family, with criminal or fatal consequences.

When Idris was adopted into PWF, he was given something to lose. In this family, he has a lot to live up to.

While we follow Idris, we cut back and forth to stories of what Peter and Keeth, Idris’ mentors in PWF, overcame to achieve Olympic medals.

At the core of this movie is the stress of having something to lose and the weight of high expectations.

Though fencing is the context, you don’t need to know anything about fencing to understand the human story of this movie.

What is the film going to be like?

This film jumps back and forth from verite to animated stories. The verite scenes observe the mundane and the ecstatic aspects of an athlete’s life as well as the interactions of a small, tight-knit organization that has experienced consistent success. The animations accompany stories told in interviews. But, instead of simply re-enacting the stories, metaphor and creative imagery amplify the remarkable stories into mythic histories. This combination of verite and metaphorical animation expresses the subjective emotional experiences of the film’s subjects.

The Peter Westbrook Foundation, a NYC non-profit that supports fencing training for youth, has been featured by Oprah, 60 Minutes, and Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel. This documentary goes into emotional depth where those profiles only scratched the surface.