‘Hollywood Reporter’ and ‘WSJ’ review ‘Buffalo Girls’…

EXCERPT: “For Stam and Pet, the two young Thai subjects in the provocative documentary, Buffalo Girls, recreation means facing off against each other in a boxing ring in pursuit of winning the national Muay Thai championship and a life-changing cash prize.

They’re among the nation’s estimated 30,000 child boxers competing in a centuries-old sport that recently has become trendy for wagering on young female combatants who aren’t required to wear protective headgear and whose tender limbs are often subject to broken bones.

But, as first-time longform director Todd Kellstein discovers, a practice that would understandably come across as disturbingly exploitative from a Western POV grows more complicated when taken in the harsh socioeconomic context of rural Thai life.”

To read the full article on THR.com, click here.

EXCERPT: “Filmmaker Todd Kellstein’s provocative documentary “Buffalo Girls” (buffalo is a pejorative term for poor Thai people) explores the riveting stories of Stam Sor Con Lek and Pet Chor Chanachai, eight-year-old prize fighters in the rural areas of Thailand. In the country, people are penury and a widening class division between Bangkok’s rich and rural farmers makes it difficult for these families to survive.

Little girls are supposed to be made up of sugar and spice and everything nice, but Pet and Stam are fierce little girls with abs of steel. They are so ripped, the ongoing joke in the film is they have the physiques of little boys. Kellstein spent three years in Thailand chronicling the girls’ family dynamics and championship matches, all the while portraying their “jobs” not as exploitative fodder but as a means to keep food on the table and a roof over their heads.”

To read the full article and interview with the Director on WSJ.com, click here.