In the week that Seattle filmmaker Jeff Unay worked on his seven-minute pitch for the Camden International Film Festival’s coveted Points North Pitch, he’d pushed himself so hard that he made himself feverish. He had a raging cold by the time he flew from Seattle to Camden and was so nervous at the moment of his pitch, he feared his voice would give out on him in front of the panel presenters.

All of his hard work and angst paid off. Out of six filmmakers invited to pitch their documentary works-in-progress to an international delegation of funders, commissioning editors and producers before a live audience, his film, Greywater, won the award.

Naturally, everyone wants to know what it’s about. Here’s the logline: Joe, a long-time amateur cage fighter, sets his sights on Clayton, a young title-holder. Joe's pursuit comes to a head as his life at home begins to unravel. At first, the premise might seem to be one thing, about a guy who fights with MMA (Mixed Martial Arts).

But actually, the film is so much more.

“It’s actually Raging Bull meets Family Ties,” said Unay, in a phone interview. “A female friend who watched a clip said there is way more estrogen in this film than testosterone.”

Unay first met “Joe” at a gym who was clearly in training, not just some guy working out. Having been previously introduced by a mutual friend, the two began talking. What Unay learned in that conversation has become the basis of the entire film.

“This is really about a family man, a blue-collar guy with a real loving family who is going through some things. His wife became ill and was on experimental medications and they still couldn’t figure out what was happening to her. She was in a lot of pain. On top of that, Joe was battling his ex-wife for custody of his two oldest daughters. Whenever he feels helpless and life feels out of control, the one thing he falls back on, the thing that makes him feel the best, is cage fighting. But at 38 years old, he knows he can’t keep it up forever.”

If that isn’t a real life Rocky set up, the story takes on another twist. “When I met him at the gym that day, he hadn’t fought in years,” said Unay. “He was secretly in training. He told me, “My family doesn’t approve of this and they don’t know I’m doing this, so I’m going to train to fight for only one more year.’”

Intrigued by the lengths Joe was going to continue to pursue his dream, Unay asked if he could follow him around with a camera and film his journey.

Joe agreed, but they had a bit of an unusual problem.

“When I started filming, I’d go home with him and his kids and his wife would look at me, like ‘What are you doing?’,” he said.

For more than a year, Joe and Unay had to work together under the guise that Joe was training other fighters at the gym and Unay was there to film that process. After Joe was done with a fight, Unay would follow him home.

“He’d go home to four beautiful girls and his wife and they absolutely adore the ground he walks on. They’d crawl all over him when he got home and the girls would see a gash above his eye and say ‘Daddy, what happened?’ And he had to say it was just from helping others train.’”

The film hinges around one final fight that Joe has been working toward, given all of the complications in his life.

“This is really a film about what it means to be a father,” said Unay.

With the Points North Pitch and Modulus Finishing Fund Award of post-production time worth $10,000, Unay will be able to finish his film by August, 2016. This is his second full length documentary and he has worked on Avatar (2009), King Kong (2005) and Hellboy (2004). Audiences will be able to see the full film by 2017 when they submit it to film festivals.

For more information visit: Greywater

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com