Girlfight, which won Best Directing Award and a shared Grand Jury Prize at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival, is an original story.

This was a refreshing movie where the director wasn’t shy of forcing girl-power, but on the same note, didn’t over do it.

Diana, a teenage girl played by Michelle Rodriguez, is troubled and needing to find an outlet for pent up anger. She lives in the projects of Brooklyn with her unappreciative father who she blames for her mother’s suicide and her art inspired brother. She has few friends, one to be exact, and a violent temper that she chooses not to control.

Her life is transformed when she discovers the world of boxing. Training in secret because of her father’s disapproval, she builds physical strength, endurance and learns self-discipline. She becomes close with her trainer Hector, played by Jaime Tirelli, finding the bond she never had with her own father.

Although Hector is hesitant of a girl boxer, he quickly finds faith in her skills and encourages her to compete in “gender blind” boxing matches.

As in most movies, the romance issue was brought about when she starts a relationship with a fellow boxer, Adrian, played by Santiago Douglas. They cross the classic bridges, a sweet first kiss, another girl on the side, he begs for forgiveness and all is well.

That is until Diana makes it to the finals and is faced with a fight for championship where she is forced to evaluate all she has learned and make a serious decision about what has become so important to her.

Even if boxing isn’t an interest to you, her struggles with family, school and life are something everyone can relate to on some level. For an independent film, this was superb.

There were parts that were slow; the movie is almost exactly two hours long. It isn’t going to leave you with an epiphany about life either. But as a woman, it will make you want to shout, though I’m sure you’ll keep it to yourself, “You go girl!” And as a man, I think you’ll want to encourage your girlfriend to take up boxing, because any girl that can move that that is worth keeping around.