Left Write Hook in the media
Cinema Australia
National theatrical release announced for Shannon Owen’s Left Write Hook
Directed by Shannon Owen, in collaboration with boxing instructor and trauma survivor Donna Lyon – who also serves as producer on the film along with Sweetshop and Green – the documentary explores how the physicality of boxing combined with the emotional power of creative writing can create a space for survivors to release their memories, reclaim their bodies, and imagine new lives for themselves.
The Age
A child abuser taught Nikki to not resist. Boxing helped her confront her trauma.
“My paternal grandfather had a minimum of 10 other victims, over multiple generations; he was very good at manipulating people into silence and inaction,” she says. “I could not talk about things, or fight back, or take action. You had to sort of freeze, and that was where a lot of the trauma flowed from.”
The Guardian
‘People’s lives have been changed’: could boxing help child abuse survivors deal with trauma?
Left Write Hook, a unique support group in Melbourne, combines boxing and writing to help survivors feel empowered – and is the subject of a punchy new documentary.
University of Melbourne
Documentary co-produced by VCA lecturers to premiere at Melbourne International Film Festival
A documentary feature film co-produced by Senior Lecturers in Film and Television at the Victorian College of the Arts, Dr Donna Lyon and Dr Shannon Owen, will premiere at the 2024 Melbourne International Film Festival.
Magic Hour
Left, Write, Hook with Dr Donna Lyon and Dr Shannon Owen
Director Shannon Owen and Producer Dr. Donna Lyon talk about the trials and tribulations of "Left, Write, Hook" a feature-length documentary about seven women who responded to a call-out to participate in an 8-week experimental recovery program.
Left Write Hook: Boxing with the Boys
Donna Lyon, Claire Gaskin, Gabrielle Everall
Appeared in ‘Intersections of Sport, Society, and Creative Writing’, pp 159–173. Edited by Lee McGowan and Kasey Symons.
Screenhub
Learning by doing: documentary maker Shannon Owen on the VCA’s Master of Film and Television course
Shannon Owen is a producer, director, and lecturer in the Master of Film and Television at the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA), located in the University of Melbourne’s Southbank campus.
Filmink
Film review: Insightful and deeply personal
A confronting insight into the healing journey of eight individuals, all survivors of childhood sexual abuse, the film highlights their voices, providing a platform to speak, where before so many survivors have moved through life feeling powerless and unheard.
University of Melbourne
Adult survivors take back their power in documentary film 'Left Write Hook'
Melbourne-based production company Sweetshop & Green has been awarded production funding from Screen Australia for its feature documentary film Left Write Hook, which follows an evidence-based research program, derived out of a University of Melbourne creativity and wellbeing research initiative.
Writing + Boxing = Left / Write // Hook
Donna Lyon, Claire Gaskin, and Gabrielle Everall
Published in TEXT 26 (Special 67): 1–18 , 20 August 2022
Roll with the punches
1 in 3 Women, Let's Talk About It
1 in 3 women experience sexual abuse, that's what Dr. Donna Lyon told me in this conversation. (congrats on the shiny new PhD Doc)
Donna and I met recently and in some ways we both felt at times like we were sitting in front of a mirror. Hearing our story relayed to us as someone else told it as their own, in a way. So very similar, so very different.
Left / Write // Hook: A mixed method study of a writing and boxing workshop for survivors of childhood sexual abuse and trauma
Donna Lyon, Shannon Owen, Margaret S. Osborne, Khandis Blake, Bruna Andrades
Published in International Journal of Wellbeing 10 (5): 64-82