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Siegel Triumphs in Muhammad Ali Doc by Jay Randy Gordon
While making 'The Trials of Muhammad Ali', Bill Siegel interviews Ali's second wife, Khalilah Camacho-Ali. photo: B. Siegel
SOME ATHLETES TRANSCEND THEIR
sport. Others transcend sports in general, often overflying a few other realms, like politics and art, in the process. Jackie Robinson was one such figure; another was Muhammad Ali.
Ali was one of those very rare athletes who followed his faith and conscience to both define his time and then overwhelm it. Sports Illustrated correctly called him the “Sportsman of the Century.”
He was also one of sport's greatest poets. In addition to his most famous couplet, "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee," there were dozens of others veering from profound insight—"It's just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand. I beat people up."—to advanced sagacity:
"Friendship... is not something you learn in school. But if you haven't learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven't learned anything."
Fighting the good fight despite the possibility of sacrificing fame and fortune, Ali paid dearly for his struggles with other boxers and naysayers but also that noteworthy sparring partner: the US government.
How his opponents knew him: One of the many photos Ali had taken of his outstretched fist. photo: Kino Lorber Inc.
Still, the Champ was unwavering and remains a living memorial to his own greatness. Over time, he opened the world's as well as America's eyes by challenging the US Army, other fighters, reporters, announcers—even the very fabric of the sports establishment.
In the end, the winner was Ali with a KO or at least a technical.
"The Trials of Muhammad Ali", a 94-minute documentary, has the heart to match its subject. By director Bill Siegel, who co-directed the fascinating "The Weather Underground" (2002) and worked on the ground-breaking "Hoop Dreams" (1994), it delves into the controversies swirling around Ali inside and outside the ring.
“[I tried to make] an intimate film weaving artful and unseen archival footage, with contemporary interviews from firsthand sources," Siegel told me recently by phone. Indeed, the result is an intense, focused narrative with hard-hitting relevance, see the trailer.
Hardly a typical sports doc, "Trials" pieces together a mosaic of Ali's controversial years using historical clips culled from media archives and exclusive interviews, which climax in the lead-up to, and aftermath of, his Sonny Liston championship bouts.
Along the way, the film addresses Ali's protective, “by-committee” dealings with prominent Louisville businessmen, his brief relationship with Malcolm X and his enduring allegiance to the controversial Nation of Islam, and its enigmatic leader Elijah Muhammad, for whom he proudly changed his name from the already-iconic Cassius Clay.
The film chronicles Ali's outspoken refusal to join the US Army during the Vietnam War, about which he said, “I ain’t got no quarrel with those Vietcong.”
Ali marching with members of the Black Panthers. photo: Kino Lorber Inc.
Ali also protested racial inequality, noting, "Hating people because of their color is wrong. And it doesn't matter which color does the hating. It's just plain wrong." His humanitarian efforts were eventually recognized with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
“This film is an example of 'recovering history," Siegel continued. "The story is relevant now. This is a film partly about Ali becoming himself but also a lot about us becoming ourselves in response to him.”
Siegel's juxtaposition of strategically sequenced one-on-one interviews with controversial subjects like Louis Farrakhan and his weaving in of rare archival footage of Malcolm X, Jackie Robinson, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., not to mention talk show pontificator David Susskind, who condemned Ali, is nothing short of masterful.
As Coretta Scott-King says to Ali in the film: “You are also our champion of justice and peace and human dignity.”
These are subjects with which Siegel has become well-versed, having co-directed “The Weather Underground” with Bay Area documentarian Sam Green. Siegel was also the writer on “One Love”, about the cultural history of basketball and directed by Leon Gast, who did the Academy Award-winning "When We Were Kings” about the Ali-Foreman "Rumble In The Jungle" bout in Zaire.
'The Trials of Muhammad Ali' poster has a classic '60s look. illo: courtesy B. Siegel
"Trials" provides a fabulous look back into the intense conflicts of race, religion, politics and personal freedom that were the '60s.
Ali's peaceful position on the Vietnam War was tested by the media-witchhunt and his Supreme Court fight to overturn a five-year prison sentence. Still, he re-conquered the sport of kings and ultimately won the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Most importantly, perhaps, he dealt heroically with the extreme debilitation of Parkinson's Disease.
Siegel also researched the celebrated and crowd-pleasing “Hoop Dreams” about the travails of two promising young basketball players which is credited with triggering the '90s wave of deeply introspective but very professional docs.
In addition to his filmmaking, which he does through Kartemquin Films, an almost 50-year old collaborative and not-for profit center for documentaries in Chicago, Siegel is the Vice President of School Programs for the Great Books Foundation, an organization dedicated to literacy and lifelong learning.
A renowned researcher, Siegel tracked down and interviewed a former clerk to one of the justices who helped reverse the Supreme Court's opinion on Ali. Other interviews shot exclusively for the film include Ali's brother Rahman, his second wife Khalilah “Belinda” Camacho-Ali, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and New York Times sportswriter Robert Lipsyte.
This film has been playing a busy schedule with its World Premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival and screenings at AFI DOCS, the IFC in NYC, the Melbourne International, the San Francisco Jewish (during which it sold out the New Parkway in Oakland), to a large audience at San Francisco's bejeweled Castro Theater and the Seattle International to name a few. See Bill introing his film here.
Fun times post-interview with Siegel and Khalilah Camacho-Ali. photo: B. Siegel
Its television premiere will be in 2014 for PBS Independent Lens. In Southern California, it debuts in Palm Springs on September 12 and it kicks off at the Muhammad Ali Center and the first-ever Muhammad Ali Humanitarian Awardson October 3-4 in Ali's hometown of Louisville, Kentucky.
"Trials" will open theatrically in the SF Bay Area at the Landmark Opera Plaza Cinema and at the Berkeley Shattuck Cinema October 25-31. For a full schedule go here.
Jay Randy Gordon, The MARINsider, is an author, film fanatic and co-founder of the Sports Mavericks and can be reached .