Smooth

As she navigates the chaos and possibility of the menopause portal and a late-in-life ADHD diagnosis, filmmaker and athlete Dawn Dreyer throws herself into boxing in pursuit of “smooth” — the hard-won feeling of moving through the gym, and the world, without fighting herself. As Dawn revisits memories of her father, her first coach, Smooth becomes an exploration of the body as both an archive of the past and a doorway into new ways of relating to failure, potential, joy, and self-trust.

“Be smooth,” says Pete, my boxing coach, as I fumble through another combination on the speed bag. Smooth has never been my thing. I’m a filmmaker and athlete in the menopause portal with a late-in-life ADHD diagnosis, a history of depression, and a lifelong tendency to power through difficulty by trying harder and criticizing myself relentlessly. Five years ago, I started boxing as a way to get stronger, but the gym slowly became something else: a place to interrupt old patterns, learn to listen to my body, and reconsider my relationship with effort, failure, and my father, my first coach. Blending archival footage, vérité filmmaking, video diaries documenting embodied practices at home and in the gym, and my hand-drawn cartoons, Smooth follows me alongside my mom Joanne, who also trains with Pete, as we revisit home movies, interviews with my dad, and family artifacts connected to ideas of talent, ambition, and unrealized potential. Intimate and funny, this short film explores how the body can become both an archive of old patterns and a pathway toward joyful effort and self-trust.

Project Website: www.crackedwindowstudios.com

Substack: https://substack.com/@dawnkdreyer

Instagram: docufemme

Director and Producer | Dawn Dreyer