BUFF Studios is back on the big screen 4 years after releasing No Shade, the directorial debut from Clare Anyiam-Osigwe. For its’ 2nd feature – a sports documentary – Absolutely Marvellous marks the directorial debut of Emmanuel Anyiam-Osigwe, the award-winning founder and former director of the British Urban Film Festival.
Together with raw video captured during her expedition to Mount Kilimanjaro, BUFF Studios’ cameras have spent the last 2 years amassing over 40 hours of footage following Marvel Opara, the blind mother of British heavyweight boxer and Olympic silver medallist Joe ‘The Juggernaut’ Joyce.
Members of Joe’s family, including younger brother Torann, feature heavily in what’s been trailed as ‘the undisputed story of Marvel Opara’. BUFF Studios released the official trailer on Tuesday with brief soundbites from Marvel herself, from Joe Joyce’s promoter Frank Warren and from boxing journalist and broadcaster Gareth A Davies. Actress Judith Jacob serves as narrator.
Speaking ahead of the release, Emmanuel Anyiam-Osigwe said: “I’ve watched enough boxing films in my time to know that audiences love these types of stories. What excites me about this one is that you wouldn’t know that Marvel is blind if she didn’t tell you. Her personality and approach to life is something I admire in people who are always up against it in life. It’s taken me the best part of two decades to find a story worth directing and I’m so glad that it’s this one.”
Absolutely Marvellous premieres November 26 at Rich Mix.
Watch the trailer for Absolutely Marvellous below;