What would you do if your entire life’s training, your livelihood and your identity were suddenly and traumatically ripped away from you? How would you cope with the loss, and more importantly, how would you move forward (or would you, at all?). Former boxer phenom Alex Saucedo came to this crossroads after sustaining life threatening brain injuries in the opening rounds of a title fight for the WBO light welterweight belt in 2018. Forced into sudden retirement and lucky to be alive, SAUCEDO follow’s Alex’s rediscovery of himself and triumphs in deepening his love and commitment to his family.

What brings people together? A common answer to this is, unfortunately, tragedy. Citizens of Kazakhstan’s largest city, Almaty, faced this head on after the murder of Denis Ten, a national icon who won the only Olympic medal for figure skating in his country’s history. He was killed by petty thieves while they tried to steal his car mirrors, in the center of downtown in broad daylight. The entire city mourned his shocking death and commiserated by coming to the place of his murder to process all their emotions about the horrific incident and the systemic issues that allowed it to happen. Several grassroots organizations were formed to shepherd positive change, and the new documentary feature film by Werner Herzog protégé, Katerina Suvorova, follows one such organization, “Oyan Qazaqstan” (meaning “wake up Kazakhstan”). The score is a dance between the delicate and the destructive, feeling on the brink of despair and hope simultaneously. It is up to us which side of such emotions we put our attention towards, and therefore, what destiny we manifest.