Gao

Growing up, I felt immense pressure to meet my father’s toxic standards of masculinity. The stoicism he expected of me was not conducive to the person I aspired to become. Starving to examine this trauma, I extrapolated my own experiences as a boxer and son in Born Under Punches. At 17, I suffered a life-altering boxing injury that would permanently blind one of my eyes, and severely impair the other. After 13 retinal surgeries, I embraced my fear of going blind by picking up a camera and confronting the sport that nearly destroyed me. Making this film was my therapy.