PENDLETON, Ind. — Eban Kostbar first saw Matt Hamill on Season 3 of the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s reality show “The Ultimate Fighter.”

Seeing Hamill on TV, Kostbar thought there was a  story there worth telling on the silver screen.

After meeting Hamill at a wrestling tournament almost six years ago, Kostbar — who once upon a time was a wrestler  himself — was convinced.

Thus began a now six-year odyssey that culminated with the release of the film, “The Hammer,” which will be shown Monday night at 7 p.m. at Pendleton Heights High School’s Loran G. Skinner Auditorium.

Potential audience members should be warned: this isn’t your typical sports movie.

The independent film has earned awards at multiple film festivals. “The Hammer” received the audience awards — the movie fans’ favorite — at the AFI, Florida, Newport Beach, Miami and Maui Film Festivals. It was the recipient of the American Independent Award at the Cleveland Film Festival and was named Crystal Heart Award winner at the Heartland Film Festival in October in Indianapolis.

Hamill, who is deaf, grew up in a small town in Ohio, where he was raised by his grandfather. Like many people, he struggled to find his path in life, whether in the deaf community or fitting in with the hearing world. He found his calling on a wrestling mat.

Hamill was a three-time NCAA Divsion III national champion for the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, N.Y. He retired from MMA in August 2011 with a 10-4 record in MMA and all but one fight being held in the UFC.

But it was the story of a young man that struggled to accept being deaf and competing in wrestling while dealing with that struggle that appealed to the story teller in Kostbar.

“We wanted to tell a story that was as accurate as possible but we didn’t want to be another cheesy sports film,” Kostbar said in a phone interview. “We wanted to make something that could stand up with the greats. I love ‘Rocky’ and ‘Rudy’ and ‘Hoosiers.’ I think they’re bigger than just sports movies.”

The fact that it’s not just another sports movie resonated so much with Pendleton Heights wrestling coach Dave Cloud that he contacted Kostbar in November to arrange a showing at Pendleton Heights.

“Everybody thinks it’s a wrestling movie. There is wrestling in it but it’s really about trying to find your way in life and figure out where you fit in,” Cloud said.

“This is a really good film for people to see. There’s a love story so the moms, the sisters and the girlfriends are going to like it. He falls in love, he gets his heart broken and finds true love again. The relationship with his grandfather is big in his life and there’s an Indiana connection, he started out wrestling at Purdue. He didn’t fit there and left. Sat out for a while and came back to wrestle at the Rochester Institute of technology.”

“We actually played in Indianapolis as part of the Heartland Film Festival. We did some PR there and coach Cloud contacted me and said he loved to show it,” Kostbar siad. “He was so passionate about the film. Him being a wrestling coach and me being a wrestler back in the day, I loved his passion for this film and wanted to make it happen.”

Hamill’s time at Purdue went well enough on the mat, but in the classroom and socially was another issue.

“Matt Hamill went to Purdue for a year. He did pretty decent on the mat there. He grew up in a small town, Loveland, Ohio, where there wasn’t much deaf education. His grandfather raised him. He didn’t grow up with sign language. He used wrestling to get away from his problems,” Kostbar said.

“Because of his lack of skills in sign language he couldn’t keep up academically. He bailed out and went home. He’s always blamed himself for that situation, not Purdue. He always says, ‘I wasn’t comfortable with who I was.’ Like a lot of people he had hard times and he came back better from that.”

Cloud’s motivation for setting up a showing of “The Hammer” was based on two things: he loved the movie and he wanted other people to have an opportunity to see the film.

“It’s a really good story. It’s one that you walk out (of the theater) feeling uplifted. We’re just hoping to get as a large an audience as we can,” Cloud said. “It’s a good movie for people to see.”

The film will be open-captioned for those in the audience who may be hearing impaired, the same way it was presented in theaters.

When Cloud saw the film in November at the Hamilton Town Center, he entered what Kostbar describes as a “social experience” with a mostly deaf audience.

“I told Mr. Kostbar, ‘Living here in Indiana, you’re seldom in the minority about anything.’ But we walked into that theater and there were more hearing-impaired people than hearing people,” Clould said. “Seeing them communicate in sign-language ... our kids were in awe, they were moving so fast.”

“We wanted everyone to be able to enjoy it. And we wanted to make it a social experience. Deaf people can come and see them enjoy the movie and see them signing with each other. Hearing people can see that and some for the first time. We wanted them to be able to see and enjoy the film together.”

While “The Hammer” has been shown in schools before as a fundraiser, Pendleton Heights is different in that it’s one of the few non-deaf schools showing the film and the primary objective isn’t a fundraiser. Tickets will only be $7 at the door as opposed to the $11 or $12 that some schools have charged.

“Our main goal is to show a good movie. It’s the kind of movie where you come out of the theater feeling uplifted,” Cloud said. “The theater holds 900. We’re trying to get 500 or 600. Anything above that would be great. If we can cover that rights fee, we’ll be happy. If we can raise some money (on top of that) that’s good, too.”

Contact Quintin Harlan: 640-4835, quintin.harlan@heraldbulletin