London based filmmaker Jade Ang Jackman's film introduces THE COUNTDOWN, a portrait of Guadalupe born Ysaora Thibus, a French Olympic fencer, in her lead up to The Tokyo Olympics - that almost never happened. The short emphasises the scarce visibility of female athletes and the lack of platforms available to them.

Between archived shots of Ysaora in training, and her inner contemplation of her existence within the sports world, Jackman captures the poignance of Thibus’ narrative, “I always aim for the gold and for the win. With or without the medal I know who I am.” Followed by the pandemic-induced postponing of the Tokyo Olympics, there is a noticeable process of self sustenance and preservation told by Ysaora through cinematic shots and deeply grounded monologue.

Jade Ang Jackman “Over lockdown, I started doing research into the lack of representation of women in sport and found in a UNESCO study that only 4 percent of sports media is about women. I became really curious about what would happen to an athlete if they are training for a fight without an opponent. I’m interested in making action films, so I was very curious about women in combat sports, which is how I discovered Ysaora.”

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