The Selling Stage

The Selling Stage is a character-driven documentary set inside professional wrestling, a world where belief is engineered in public and paid for in private. Following LuFisto at an end-of-career inflection point, the film uses the ring as a mirror for the stories we tell ourselves as a culture: that hard work guarantees reward, that you can will your way to the top, that the dream is fair if you're tough enough. And, just as importantly, it challenges a second myth: that documentary is ever 100% impartial. Like wrestling, it's a form of framing, of choosing what to show, what to hide, and what to ask an audience to believe.

I'm making this film because I see myself in Lufisto's story, and it's rooted in a fear I don't want to ignore. I'm working relentlessly to build a life in filmmaking, but I can't shake the question: what if success, on paper, still feels like a loss? We hear endless stories about the people who achieved their dreams; we rarely sit with the people who sacrificed just as much and ended up somewhere more complicated than triumph. By honoring Lufisto's journey, I'm trying to show that her story matters and take a step forward in making mine matter too, before the years pass and the question becomes irreversible.