(San Francisco, CA., Thursday, May 16, 2019) – Wrestle is an intimate, inspiring coming of age portrait of the wrestling team at Huntsville’s J.O. Johnson High School, which has been on Alabama’s failing schools list for many years. As they fight their way towards the State Championship, wrestlers Jailen, Jamario, Teague, and Jaquan each face injustices and challenges on and off the mat, together grappling with obstacles that jeopardize their success while their coach wades into the complexities of class and race in the South.

Their tough-love coach Chris Scribner isn’t off the hook, either; he must come to terms with his own past while unwittingly wading into the complexities of race, class and privilege.

Wrestle premieres on Independent Lens Monday, May 20, from 10:00 to 11:30 p.m. ET (check local listings) on PBS and will also be available simultaneously for online streaming at pbs.org.

Lauren Belfer (Co-Director/Writer/Lead Producer) is a producer and filmmaker based in Brooklyn. Most recently she was the line and field producer on Martin Scorsese’s Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story (Netflix 2019), and she has frequently collaborated with Michael Moore, having worked on Fahrenheit 11/9, Trumpland, and the Oscar-shortlisted Where to Invade Next. Belfer produced the narrative feature After Louie (BFI 2017), starring Alan Cumming, and the documentary Hotline (Hot Docs 2014). Belfer’s directorial debut, Wrestle, garnered 11 awards on the festival circuit, including two audience awards and the Maysles Brothers Award for Best Documentary Film. In 2019, Wrestle was released theatrically by Oscilloscope Laboratories.