No Girls In The Dojo

A young woman skilled in martial arts, seeks revenge on a loan shark who killed her mother and to take back the family dojo.

  • Alps Lifee
    Director
  • Alps Lifee
    Writer
  • Lucas A Ferrara
    Producer
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  • Hannah Knight
    Key Cast
    "Diwata"
  • Ermar Alexander
    Key Cast
    "Lucas"
  • Antonio Niner
    Key Cast
    "Mac"
  • Victoria Sheppard
    Key Cast
    "Auntie"
  • Jack Ilco
    Key Cast
    "Skittles"
  • Alessi Lifee
    Key Cast
    "Young Diwata"
  • Armin Mina Natividad
    Key Cast
    "Mother"
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Runtime:
    14 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    December 22, 2021
  • Production Budget:
    1,700 GBP
  • Country of Origin:
    United Kingdom
  • Country of Filming:
    United Kingdom
  • Language:
    English, Tagalog
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Alps Lifee

Alps Lifee is a filmmaker based in London, United Kingdom. Having no background or interest in film until mid twenties, he wanted to tell amazing stories but had no way of doing so, then began the self taught process of learning how to make films via YouTube which was the only affordable way to learn coming from a relatively poor urban background, having made several short films to work on his skills, he wants to now work on a series and a feature film for 2022.

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Director Statement

I decided to make No Girls in the Dojo having seen one of my actress friends practice her Eskrima skills on instagram stories, after she had explained to me more about the martial art and that she was currently training at a FMA (filipino martial arts) gym, I asked to meet with her and the gym master, when I found out both of their heritages belonged to the filipino bloodline, my first decision was to incorporate a filipino theme into the film and make use of the Tagalog language which was interesting to me as this was the first time I had worked with a foreign language in film. My first thought was to make an amazing fight scene, I had two fighters on hand and so it was only right to utilise those skills, then I had the thought that the master was quite powerful (in film and real life) and perhaps that he wouldn't want any girls in his gym and this allowed the title to develop as No Girls in the Dojo, this allowed me to then develop the characters, aiming for that 80's feel of big characters with interesting quirks and personalities, from there I had to develop a way for the main character Diwata to get to the fight, I didn't want just a regular old fight or some poor excuse to start one, I thought the best way was revenge and to claim back the actual gym, so we gave her a mother as I feel all children have strong ties to their mother, especially if she was raising them by her self, this allowed back story for Diwata to gain some martial arts skills from her mother.

Making this film has taught me a lot about the filipino culture, how to direct a fight scene (as this was my first), learning so much about martial arts and upon completion I now have a founded interest in FMA and I hope to develop this film further down the line into something much bigger.