“JessZilla” Never Pulls its Punches
It’s difficult to talk about JessZilla in a even-mannered way. The documentary follows Jess Silva, known to just about everyone as JessZilla, as she begins her journey to win gold at the 2026 Olympic Games in boxing. At the time the documentary went into production, Jess was eleven. The film crew, led by director Emily Sheskin, does yearly check-ins with Jess and her ever-supportive father, Emily Sheskin. When Jess is fifteen, she’s diagnosed with a brain tumor and told she may never box again. While Jess lived to see the film go on part of its festival journey, she passed away in August of 2024. To look at JessZilla, or any documentary for that matter, as merely a film is to ignore the world that it’s being released into. To ignore the people who were part of it, inspired by it, and impacted by the life of a little girl they will never get to meet.
Jess is the sweetest, feistiest boxer you ever did see. At maybe five-foot-nothing and a starting weight of 80 pounds, you wouldn’t look at her and see a threat. She comes onto the screen, full of energy, full of excitement. Next to her sits her father. The yin to her yang. He’s excited for her, don’t get me wrong, but he never matches the unbridled enthusiasm of the eleven-year-old who has found her passion. Jess describes herself as a daddy’s girl, the two spending an inordinate amount of time together, shuffling endlessly from home to the gym and back again. It’s clear there’s a shared passion between them, a shared love and respect for one another that’s sometimes hidden under the banter that can only exist between a parent and a child.
JessZilla uses a blend of talking-head interviews and fly-on-the-wall filmmaking. Combining the two could feel jerky, but because these staged interviews are presented as yearly check-ins, the documentary flows nicely. There’s also the traditional sports narrative that runs through the entire film. Jess is often alone in her weight group, leaving her with two options. She can choose not to fight or she can go up a weight class and fight someone older, bigger, and with more experience. Such is the reality of a female boxer. It’s an added burden in the journey of an athlete. How do you grow in your field when there’s no one to better yourself against? It’s not merely enough for Jess to train endlessly. She has to have someone to use those skills against.
For the Silva family, JessZilla acts as a capsule of memories of Jess. For those who never got to meet her in person, it’s an introduction to a kid who let her passion rule her life. While watching, my mind wandered to Mike Flanagan’s recently released The Life of Chuck, where the film asks how a kid would live his life knowing that it ends. Every life ends. We don’t know where, when, why, or how. Some end far too soon and some people linger in pain more than they’d like to. We don’t have control over that, but we do have a say in how our presence impacts the life of another. Jess has touched the lives of people far beyond those she met personally. Because of the film, the reach can be without limits. That’s what filmmaking can do. It can make people, ideas, and beliefs immortal. JessZilla is a warm documentary that wholeheartedly embraces the girl at its center – her grit, the ones who love her, and a passion that never wavered.
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