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Labour of love documentary With This Ring screens in Kelowna Monday night

Exploring the unbelievable dedication of female boxers in India, With This Ring to show at Rotary Centre in Kelowna tonight
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The documentary With This Ring will screen in Kelowna on Monday night.


With This Ring, a feature documentary which takes an intimate look at Indiaʼs world champion female boxers will screen as a special event to inaugurate the new projector at the Rotary Arts Centre in Kelowna tonight.

It is a free showing and open to the public.

Filmmakers Ameesha Joshi and Anna Sarkissian made With This Ring on a shoestring budget over the course of 10 years. The film trails three female Indian boxers as they rise to the top of their game and do their utmost to stay in the limelight.

The filmʼs idea came from a World Press Photo exhibit in 2005, featuring girls boxing on the beach in Chennai, India. Growing up in an Indian household, Joshi knew about the pressures young Indian women face to get married and how challenging it must be for them to pursue boxing.

“To be some of the best boxers in the world despite the criticism and backlash from family and society takes such strength of character – these women became my instant heroes,” she said.

With This Ring shows the incredible highs and heartbreaking lows that occur in these boxersʼ lives over a span of six years. One of the characters Mary Kom, remained virtually unknown despite being a five time world champion. It wasnʼt until she won an Olympic medal at the 2012 London Games that the media took proper notice. Mary is now a superstar in India and had a Bollywood blockbuster made on her life story starring actress Priyanka Chopra.

Starting in 2006, Joshi and Sarkissian followed the athletes to their hometowns, training camps, world championships in China, Barbados, and India, and even the London 2012 Olympics. They handled most aspects of the filmʼs production on their own and had a team of volunteers and friends help them along the way. They enlisted the help of Kelowna based, Gemini-award-winning picture editor Jackie Dzuba, to craft the finished film.

With This Ring premiered at the Mumbai International Film Festival in January 2016 and had its North  America premiere at the Atlantic Film Festival last month in September. Joshi, Sarkissian and Dzuba will be in attendance and will answer questions during a Q&A after the screening.

Screening details

Time:Monday, November 28th Reception @ 7:00 pm I Show @ 7:30pm

Location: Rotary Centre for the Arts, 421 Crawston Avenue, Kelowna

Tickets: Free event, RSVP on Eventbrite.