Artist bio

Taylor J. Irizarry. I have been filming and editing since I was 10 years old. I have been doing short films since 2013 for my church and community. I am an independent film maker in Columbia, South Carolina. Sabri Irizarry is an actress, writer and production designer from Columbia, SC. She is best known for her work on Inclement Films projects such as The Stones of Okella (2015) and Strange Town (2016). Her other notable works include Choices (2018), Loophole (2017), Faith's Song (2017) and Pilgrims (2016). Man-E Kerr is an actor and writer, known for Death by Chocolate (2017), Midnight Snack (2017), Strange Town (2016) and The Stones of Okella (2015). He has been reviewing films on his YouTube channel since 2017.

Title

Our Fight

Artist Statement

The different translations of Ephesians 6 (Engage Art’s key chapter) open up with “our” fight, “our” struggle, “we” wrestle, etc. We took this piece of the Ephesians narrative to title our short film Our Fight, a story that focuses on the themes of being prepared and not fighting alone.

Our film opens with someone bound in chains, then our title sequence appears. The next scene shows Myla, one of the main characters, running from evil (which is represented in human form). She is alone and up against evil which is twice her size. She falls down because her shoes are untied, a sign that she is not prepared.

We see a small bag in her hand. She’s taken something from evil and he wants it back. Myla does her best to fight evil on her own, but she struggles. Just as she is about to lose the fight, she is delivered when her friend Micah shows up. Micah scolds her for going out on her own and forgetting her weapon, “again” which confirms that Myla has issues with being impulsive and unprepared. She shows Micah that she was able to retrieve a bag. This is extremely important by the way they celebrate.

As evil surrounds them on both sides, Micah says to her, “Together this time.” This emphasizes the theme that two are stronger than one. The fight against evil ensues. It’s hard. Its takes time. It takes energy. It takes courage to keep going. But together, Micah and Myla achieve victory. Before they leave the battle scene…they reveal what was in the bag that Myla retrieved from evil. A key.

They run from the battle scene and go to the captive that was shown at the opening of the film. Evil had him locked up and he could not fight for himself. His friends fought for him, retrieving the key for his freedom.

As they walk together, the captive’s chains fall away. Our key verse fades in, “Be prepared. Take all the help you can get, cause you’re up against more than you think you can handle on your own.” Ephesians 6:13 (MSG).

Our Fight emphasizes being prepared to fight evil and making sure you’re not alone when you go into battle. Myla was able to retrieve the key alone, but she would never have been able to achieve complete success without the help of her friend Micah. For our captive…he needed the help of others when he couldn’t fight on his own.

How it fits into contest

Our Fight is based on the opening of Ephesians 6, emphasizing that the spiritual fight is a collective battle, not an individual battle. We’re not meant to fight alone, we’re meant to fight together. Our theme of being prepared and asking for help comes from Ephesians 6:13. While we recognize that our struggle is not against flesh and blood, we opted to use the beauty of martial arts choreography as an allegory to tell our narrative.

Credits

Director, Cinematographer, Editor, Story: Taylor J. Irizarry
Choreography, Actor, Story: Ethan Irizarry
1st AC, Sound, Story: Elijah Kost
Producer, Story: Ally Irizarry
Actor, Story: Garren Fain
Actress, Story, Screenplay: Sabri Irizarry
Actor, Story: Aslan Irizarry
Actor: AJ Jacobs
Actor: Brian Pardue

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