Pro Grip (How to be Humans)
Prepare to witness the full spectrum of human emotion in Jordan Baseman’s brilliant new film commission.
Pro Grip (How to be Humans) combines footage from the 1990 UK Arm Wrestling Championships with an original interview with psychologist Dr Gray Atherton from the University of Plymouth.
In the film, arm wrestlers challenge one another across the table, their faces expressing a range of feelings from subtle states of calm to extreme contortions of anguish.
Interwoven with these encounters, Dr Atherton discusses the development of non-verbal emotions, reflecting on how humans use movement, gestures and facial expressions to communicate and bond.
Pro Grip (How to be Humans) was commissioned by The Box with the support of Plymouth City Council, the British Film Institute (BFI) and Arts Council England as part of the BFI's Reimagining the Film Archive programme (2023–2026).
