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Most modern documentarians aim for the appearance of unvarnished truth and shy away from the cathartic beauty of Flaherty's storytelling legacy. But that legacy returns with a knockout punch in "On the Ropes," a film about contemporary amateur fighters at Brooklyn's Bed-Stuy Boxing Center. A favorite at Sundance and other festivals, it has already opened to acclaim in a half-dozen cities and will continue to roll out throughout the fall.

The co-directors are Nanette Burstein and Brett Morgen, NYU film school graduates who performed different jobs in the documentary world (Burstein as an editor, producer and writer, Morgen as a director and cameraman) before teaming up in "On the Ropes." They don't invent incidents the way Flaherty did. But they do use all the elements of film to shape their subjects' lives into an emotionally engulfing story.

Every choice they make -- whether in shooting, editing or sound -- brings us deeper into the psyches of their characters. The film pivots on Harry Keitt, a trainer who short-circuited his own pugilistic career when he couldn't stay away from drugs and crime. Harry hopes that he can keep three protégés from repeating his mistakes. What he can't do, of course, is keep them from making their own mistakes.

Tyrene Manson, an ardent female fighter, gets indicted for possession of crack with intent to sell simply because she lives with a crack-addicted uncle. (She is the legal guardian of his children.) But during her train wreck of a trial, you don't just agonize over the injustice of the legal system; you also agonize over Tyrene's inability to present herself as the heroine she is. She doesn't see that her righteous anger can be construed as contempt.

Harry's prize prospect, a sunny-faced natural named George Walton, embodies the stresses of youthful impatience and success. And Harry's third charge, Noel Santiago, admits at the outset, "I was still robbing when I was boxing, but not as much as I used to." Noel is a slippery, amoral innocent who somehow grows from boy to boy-man. There's no more heartening moment in the film than when he brags to Harry about getting the top score on a storefront-college English exam.

Michael Sragow Michael Sragow's column appears every Thursday in Arts & Entertainment + Archives

The filmmakers convey Harry and his fighters' victories and defeats with a soul-rocking combination of intimacy and intricacy. Even at its most tragic, "On the Ropes" doesn't leave you hopeless. You believe that Harry and Tyrene, Noel and George will be redeemed. When I spoke to Burstein and Morgen two weeks ago, they sounded pumped with faith and affection for their characters.

How did you choose the people you focus on?

Burstein: I first went to that gym to learn how to box, without any intention of making a film. As I was training I became friendly with everyone there, and I started to find out about their lives. This was in 1996. By the time we thought of doing the film it was clear from the get-go who was going to be in it. It was not the place that was the main attraction -- it was the particular people and their conflicts, although the setting added a lot.

Unlike many "socially conscious" movies, your documentary views boxing not as exploitation, but as a real athletic discipline.

Morgen: We identified with the characters as individuals, not because of a political agenda. We didn't want to present them from any class perspective, theirs or ours.

Burstein: For us, the movie was going to be a human story about the underdog striving to achieve; it wasn't about class or race.

Morgen: But ultimately class and race did enter the picture, particularly in relation to Tyrene's trial. If there's a message to the film, it's that if you don't have money, you get screwed. Still, what sets this movie apart is how the politics emerge from the story. It's not like we're trying to preach anything. I hope the movie allows audiences to draw their own conclusions and plays across party lines. Conservatives have come up to us and said, "I don't think much about the inner city, but that woman got a raw deal."

In fact, doesn't the boxing ethic -- with its emphasis on self-improvement and self-reliance -- fit a conservative ethic?

Burstein: Oh yeah -- it's all about "pulling yourself up by your boot-straps." No matter what their politics, all kinds of audiences can be outraged by what happened to Tyrene, because her situation did not arise out of laziness. The stereotype is that people end up in jail or end up losing because they don't work hard enough, and you can see that's not the case with her. She's the most determined woman you'll ever meet.

This is your first work as a directing team, and it's a totally mature work. Which of your predecessors helped you find your way?

Morgen: We have absolute respect for the tradition of non-fiction filmmaking in this country, but I can't point to a lot of other films that influenced us stylistically. We are trying to tell stories that don't necessarily feel like documentaries. If we have a role model it's probably Robert Flaherty, who made films with real people that pulled you into a dramatic story through verité scenes, with no talking heads. Both Nanette and I came to documentary from studying at NYU, which is predominantly narrative.

Burstein: We both started out making short fiction films.

Morgen: My heroes were always filmmakers like John Ford, Truffaut and Godard. We want to take everything we know about making features and apply it to non-fiction.

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