Mirror Mirror on the Wall (OZ)

COMBAT MIRROR follows a groundbreaking brain-health research program - the Pearce study, currently in academic submission - built around one urgent question: can combat sports be made safer for the young fighters taking them up. With access to the researchers behind it, the coaches implementing it, and the fighters volunteering as its first subjects, the film tracks how early screening and defensive-technique reform could reduce the neurological toll of boxing and MMA before it starts. Made with the support of the Concussion Legacy Foundation, COMBAT MIRROR moves between the lab and the gym to argue that protecting a fighter's brain and protecting the sport are the same fight.