"Glena" Raises the Bar for Films About Female Fighters

When Portland, Oregon documentarian Allan Luebke began working on Glena, about mixed martial artist Glena Avila, he’d envisioned a month of shooting that would result in a short film. But Avila, a single mom who began fighting in her mid-thirties (an age when many in the sport are considering retirement) proved to be an open book with an interesting backstory: she grew up in poverty, her once-solid relationship with her teenage son was flagging, their house was on the verge of foreclosure, and her ex-husband had initiated a custody battle, claiming that Avila’s fighting had a negative impact on their young daughter. Luebke wound up filming for a year and editing for another three, and after a lengthy tour on the festival circuit, Glena made its small-screen debut on Showtime this month.

Read the rest at Bitch!