"A Violent Dance" is a feature-length docudrama being written and directed by Magellan Rubin.
Grant Neal wasn’t just a football standout who led his team to a national championship as a freshman... he was also a two- time wrestling champ who held a near perfect GPA in the pre-med program. Grant was everything the NCAA wants but very rarely gets, a leader on the field and in the classroom. Grant cared about his community just as much as his team. Everything was going well for him until the unimaginable happened...
In 2015, Grant was falsely accused of raping his own girlfriend by a woman he’d never met. His girlfriend told school administrators repeatedly that he did nothing wrong but they expelled him anyway. Two years later, the district court found the university’s investigation to be wrought with racial bias and inaccuracy. Grant was never charged for rape and the university’s president resigned without public explanation. However, the damages to his reputation and athletic career were already irreversible.
Instead of giving up, Grant turned his attention to mixed martial arts and was taken under the wing of veteran Nate ‘The Great’ Marquardt. He’s since led an unprecedented career by racking up nine straight wins in just three years. He continues to be undefeated after turning professional with a remarkable 46-second submission victory... only a little longer than his first fight, which lasted all of 26 seconds. While cage fighting was never the plan for Grant, he’s already demonstrated superstar potential and plans to find out just how far he can take it... an opportunity he was robbed of in football.
This is a comeback story about hope and the pursuit of justice. But more importantly, it’s a story about racism in the era of #BlackLivesMatter and an exposé of Title IX at the height of the #MeToo movement.
