JessZilla

When I initially read about Jesselyn, I loved the idea of profiling a young girl’s journey in a male-dominated combat sport.

Through the process of making the short (a NYT featured OpDoc) and getting to know Jesselyn, I saw a bit of myself in her. I could relate to being a woman in a male dominated field, just like Jesselyn can relate to being the only girl in the gym.

I went into the feature with so many questions to answer: What does it mean to be a champion? Where do parents fit in when it comes to their high achieving kids? How will her female-ness play into all of it?

And then the unthinkable happened – a rare cancer diagnosis at 15-years-old.

By that point I’d been filming for 5 years. I’d blurred the lines of keeping your subjects at arm’s length because it was impossible to know the Silvas and not have love for them. What was supposed to be a rare coming-of-age story about a future Olympian was now potentially a story about pediatric cancer that we weren’t sure we wanted to tell for Jess’ sake.

While the adults wrestled with what this meant and with the possibility of scrapping what we made, it was Jesselyn who wanted to continue and finish this film. She was the one after her diagnosis who asked when we were doing our next interview. She is the reason that our film is a bittersweet, but inspirational story because her fighting spirit can’t help but give us all hope.

This film is so important to me because my subjects are so important to me. The fact that we don’t know how much time Jesselyn has with us hurts, but it made it that much more important to me that this film represent her legacy. Thanks to Jesselyn, this film is for everyone: parents and children alike.

To use her words – I want everyone to know Jesselyn Silva. What she did and what she’ll continue to do for those that take her message with them into the future.