said that the film, about a boxer from Alabama who is charged with murder, is a fictional story that was inspired by meeting a boxer in Germany when she was 9 years old, an interaction that she remembered and was the basis of the idea for the film. The film was self-financed by Alexander and had a budget of US$35,000 and was filmed in 5 days. In 2005, Alexander directed her first full-length feature film called Green Street, also known as Green Street Hooligans, or Hooligans. The independent film starred Charlie Hunnam as soccer hooligan Pete Dunham, Elijah Wood as Matt Buckner, Claire Forlani as Shannon, Marc Warren as Steve, and Leo Gregory as Bover, and was produced by Gigi Pritzker and Deborah Del Prete. Green Street Hooligans was inspired by her experience growing up watching her family's favorite German soccer team Waldhof Mannheim, which led to a fascination with the sport and its passionate fans. Inspired by this, Alexander co-wrote a screenplay with a former soccer hooligan turned writer, Dougie Brimson, and Joshua Shelov based on a story by Alexander and Brimson about the firm of West Ham United. Released in 2005, Green Street Hooligans was only the second in the history of the South by Southwest festival to win both the Jury Award for Best Narrative Feature and Audience Award for Narrative Feature, after Alex Holdridge's Sexless in 2003. In 2008, Alexander directed the film Punisher: War Zone starring Ray Stevenson as the Punisher. She was the first woman to direct a Marvel adaptation and it was her first studio film. At the time of its release, the film was considered a commercial and critical failure. The film has since become considered a cult classic. Comedian Patton Oswalt was an early and vocal defender of the film. Alexander has been outspoken about her experience with Punisher. The film's budget shrank considerably, and Alexander wanted to work on a studio film so she said she was hired at a low rate. Then, during marketing, that budget was also low, and, in her opinion, the Christmas release date a mis-step. In 2011, Alexander wrote and directed the straight-to-video film Lifted, shot in Alabama, which had themes of Christianity. The film starred Dash Mihok, Nicki Aycox and Uriah Shelton. Lifted tells the story of a son's difficulty with his father's deployment in Afghanistan as a Marine, and features musical performances by