Private Project

The Lioness Within

The movie follows Graciela Casillas and her struggles as a female fighter, first as a kickboxer, then boxer and at the end her as a mix martial artist.
Her struggle during last 40 years as a martial artist and being with the trainers, teachers and being away from them.
Her path and struggle as one of the first female fighters to fight for her rights and dignity, that was not recognized or talked in general public for years.

Graciela Casillas has been teaching martial arts since 1980’s
She was kickboxing and boxing world champion from 1979 til 1986.
She had 33 professional fights and 18 knockouts. She retired undefeated and very is still unknown. Even to this day many people in her hometown don’t know who she was and what she has done.

She met Dan Inosanto in 1981 and since then, she expend her knowledge under his guidance, learning Jeet Kune Do, Philippino Kali and all other styles involving all kinds of weapons, swords, sticks, blades etc.
Dan Inosanto was her teacher for 9 years. She paved the way for women’s martial arts today-MMA, female boxing and kickboxing.
She was first woman who hold both world titles in boxing and kickboxing in the same time.
If there was no Bruce Lee there will be no Graciela, as a teacher, as she is today.
She states that Dan Inosanto broaden her skills and knowledge about the martial arts.
She teach women self defense, fighting with blades, sticks, jiu jitzu,
kenpo, escrima and now her own style Shen Chun Do ( The Way of The Warrior ), the style where she put a combination of everything that she learned, inspired by Brus Lee phylosophy.
She admires Bruce Lee and his philosophy, especially his idea of adapting and using martial arts to express yourself.
The movie is about the teacher - student relationship and how that helps the fighter( student) and the other way around.
We connected with teachers and talk with them, how they felt about teaching and teaching in general as a skill and what they have to say about teaching.
How teacher is important and how students improve the teachers.
The movie is also about the female legacy of Martial Arts and martial Arts today.
It’s resonates with the Bruce Lee’s teaching for equality, freedom of style and giving respect to that form of art that Bruce Lee brought in the west in the big way.
It shows importance and beauty of practicing martial art and it’s philosophy.

  • Aleksandar Adzic
    Director
  • Matt Turner
    Producer
  • Huzaifah Abu Bakar
    Producer
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Genres:
    Documentary, sports, boxing, kickboxing
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 11 minutes 43 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    April 11, 2023
  • Production Budget:
    60,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director - Aleksandar Adzic