Never Be A Punching Bag for Nobody (2023)

Indie rock musician Naomi Yang (Galaxie 500, Damon and Naomi) is known for her melancholy music - the last place you'd expect to find her is a neighborhood boxing gym in a working-class part of Boston. But that's where she's been, learning boxing and making the documentary feature Never Be A Punching Bag for Nobody. The film weaves together three stories about fighting back: Yang's own, including some disturbing personal history she has never before shared; the colorful boxing coach and ex-drill sergeant, Sal Bartolo Jr., son of 1940s champ Sal Bartolo Sr., "The Pride of East Boston"; and schoolteacher Mary Ellen Welch, who together with a group of neighborhood women in the 1960s, the "Maverick Street Mothers," mobilized to defend their community's interests. None of these protagonists are destined to win the Big Fight, but all offer inspiration and lessons for anyone who has ever needed to hold their ground.