From Omeleto.

A climber tries out for the Olympics.

GRIPPED is used with permission from Kyle Fox Douglas and Michael Adrian Burgos. Learn more at https://kylefoxdouglas.com.

Julian is an elite rock climber hoping to qualify for the Olympics. A perfectionist and headstrong, he is tough, hard on himself and self-isolating. But during the qualifying competition, he gets embroiled in a controversy, dashing his Olympic dreams and putting his burgeoning athletic career in peril.

Now Julian is being interviewed on a podcast about what happened, in an attempt to set the record straight. But as the podcast host attempts to shape his narrative into a more sensationalistic mold, Julian uncovers the deeper pressures he faces as an athlete and as a man.

Directed by Kyle Fox Douglas and Michael Adrian Burgos from a script written by Douglas (who also plays Julian), this thoughtful, intense short sports drama tackles a fascinating knot of topics: the potential self-immolation of obsessive perfectionism, the fine line between trauma and consumable drama for an audience and the isolation of being a Black man in a sport with few of them. Julian is singularly dedicated to his sport, but that burning dedication takes a toll on his spirits, building up to a crisis whose fallout he must manage.

Shot with a dark dynamism that fits with the main character’s intensity, the storytelling toggles between Julian’s past training, his Olympic qualifying trial, and then his podcast interview, dissecting what happened during his trial. The writing structure gives viewers a glimpse into Julian’s focus and dedication as an athlete, the challenges of his sport and its effects on him. The layers play with and against each other, especially as he talks during the interview. In the moment, he is driven and stubborn; afterward, he is a knot of emotions: wariness, exhaustion, anger and resentment, toward himself and with the sport he loved.

Actor Kyle Fox Douglas plays Julian as a self-contained but intense competitor, keeping many of his thoughts and feelings close to his chest. As Julian reflects on what happened, we see the buildup of pressure on him and the toxicity of his drive for imperfection, especially as he sees his dream slipping away. The buildup leads to a series of actions he can’t easily come back from, but the most interesting aspect of Julian’s arc as a character is that he wonders if he wants to come back at all. Who is he without his passion? And who is he when that passion changes into burnout and even hatred?

By the end of GRIPPED, Julian is left in limbo, facing existential questions and confronting the appetite for clear answers, simple heroic arcs and neat narratives. The film’s first sections have a fast-moving, jagged pacing, but the last images shift the film’s register into a slower, more reflective register, evoking something that feels sad yet freeing and giving its main character the space he needs to take for himself.