Gangster film starring Leeds boxers wins praise in America

Former boxer Lee Murtagh said the film called Straight’ner was entered in the Los Angeles International Film Festival in September and was hailed as a 'labour of love'.

Lee said the film, which premiered at Edmund House Club in East End Park, has been accepted for the 2021 Harrogate Film Festival.

Lee, a youth worker and boxing coach, said Straight’ner is based on a true story of how he was asked to referee a boxing match to settle a long running row between two men around three years ago.

The bout never happened, but it gave Lee an idea for a story.

He added a gangster twist to the story, with his film having the two adversaries as members of rival gangs.

Self-proclaimed former gangster turned author Dave Courtney also makes a cameo appearance in the film.

Lee said the feature-length film was made by Global Media during lockdown, mostly at Bethlehem Boxing Club in Richmond Hill, Leeds.

He has helped hundreds of youngsters at the club, which doubles up as a boxing training and keep fit venue and a youth club.

The film was entered in the LA International Film Festival in September in the low budget category for first time filmmakers

Lee said: "It was amazing. People didn't believe me when I told them we had got in to Los Angeles.

"Everyone that has watched it has said they were really surprised how good it was and the quality of it."

A review of Straight'ner on the LA Film Festival website, stated: "It’s a refreshing change from the standard South East England offerings because of its locale and gives people a different perspective on the British gangland genre and although there is a bit of gunplay and violent threat, is quite a restrained effort.

"Overall, Straight'ner is clearly a labour of love of the participants, with Murtagh proving he can hold numerous hats and offer a gutsy character in the realm of a Rocky Balboa, a fighter with a heart of gold determined to make some good for himself and those around him."

Lee, who is the son of Irish parents, was the first Leeds-born winner of the Irish light middleweight title, which he won in Belfast in July 2012.

He was just days away from celebrating his 40th birthday in 2013 when he had his final fight in a baseball stadium in Rochester, New York.

He fought and narrowly lost on points to Hector Camacho Jnr, whose father Hector Camacho Snr was a multiple world boxing champion in the 1980s.

Lee was filmed over 10 days in the build-up to that fight, which was made into a movie by Leeds filmmaker Ronald Wright, called Fighting Down in Bethlehem.

Lee said the experience had never left him and he has wanted to make his own movie ever since.

Ex-Leeds boxer Ashley Crawford - a three time world title challenger - appears in the film along with World Boxing Union champion Tasif Khan, of Bradford.

It also features the world’s oldest boxer - heavyweight Steve Ward, 63.