THE TRIALS OF MUHAMMAD ALI screening : 2013 Montclair Film Festival
May 8th, 2013 by Mr. C
Director: Bill Siegel
Genre: Documentary on Muhammad Ali
This film is easily one of my favorite Muhammad Ali movies as it sets forth to document his other brand of fisticuffs which did not take part inside the boxing ring but rather in a staunch toe to toe fight with humanity and the United States court of law. This was arguably his best fight but then again without his boxing greatness, the stage would have never been set. From the realization of his religious beliefs as he converted to Islam to his refusal to be drafted into the Vietnam War as he filed as a conscientious objector, Ali would be sentenced to prison but his resilience in the fight with the appeal against the Supreme Court had him victorious in the end but not without consequences like being stripped of his heavyweight title and banned from boxing for 4 years along with getting villainized in the eye of the public. In these 4 years, he would reinvent himself as he continued his Ali shuffle from another point of view to support himself including lecturing, going on speaking tours, teaching, and starring in a Broadway play (Buck White)?!
The archival footage of Ali and Elijah Muhammad, the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr. as well as the Olympic Gold medal Ceremony in 1968 with the famous Fist raise while the Star Spangled Banner was being played served as a nice way to transport the viewing audience to the times of struggle in the 1960s for black americans. Others that opposed Ali’s stance like Jackie Robinson, Joe Louis, and black americans serving in the military made its way to the screen as well. Interviews and stories with Ali’s brother and Ali’s ex-wife Khalilah gives you a different perspective of the legendary man behind the fists. Kudos to the director – Bill Siegel in getting interviews with Louis Farrakhan and John Carlos – 1968 Olympic medalist. Farrakhan’s words about Ali were very instrumental in gaining insight to his stand in what was right.
(Director-Bill Siegel w/ a Q&A after the screening; photo by mr. c)
The Q&A after the screening with Bill Siegel shed some light on some of the issues and challenges in making this film. The fair use doctrine for archival footage was instituted in much of the video footage in the film but the cost of the licensing for footage as a whole still added to a insurmountable figure.
A great question/comment during the Q&A after the screening that was posed by a Professor that specialized in the writings of The Nation of Islam and Islam in general that was directed at Bill Siegel was: In terms of the film, how did you bring the viewing audience back to the period of the 1960s who weren’t there so that they can comprehend what was going on? To understand Ali’s responses, attitude, and desperation in that moment, you have to understand the period of time that the blacks were going through when they were basically under siege.
That was a heavy hitting question and the director mentioned that he himself is as white as he can be from Minnesota so he’s not pretending that he can relate to what went on during that time. It was not a lived experience and that he was relying on being as honest to himself as he can be in finding the answer from people who lived that experience. The use of archival footage, interviews, and research were basically the tools he used in capturing the essence of what Ali was fighting for.
Bill Siegel (Director) then proceeded to ask the professor: Did the film help bring you back to this period in time? The Professor’s response: Parts of the film did like when the image of the lynchings helped illustrate the type of trauma and less than human feeling that the blacks felt.
The director also mentioned that he had spent some time at Muhammad Ali’s home to show him a cut of the film. Ali could not speak but he can still communicate by body language and expressions and by the reactions on his face – Bill Siegel knew that he loved the film! But jokingly (or maybe not so jokingly), Siegel said that he was told that Ali loves nothing more than watching Muhammad Ali on the screen besides watching black & white Westerns!
In his closing comments, Bill Siegel stated that he wanted to distinguish his film from all of the other Muhammad Ali stories being told by the virtue of the limited number of talking head interviewees by only talking to those who were there during the times of Ali’s struggle like his brother, the ex-wife, the founder of the Louisville Sponsor group, & Minister Farrakhan who was there from the very beginning when Cassius Clay joined the Nation of Islam. Siegel only wanted the principle first-hand storytellers & witnesses in telling the Ali Story which was history in the making. Siegel hopes that he captured the importance of this Muhammad Ali story with strides to educate the youngsters of this relevant part of american history.
Go and see The Trials of Muhammad Ali when it rolls around to a theater near you! You will be enlightened by Muhammad Ali’s spiritual transformation and guaranteed, it will provide motivation for us to overcome today’s issues of race, faith and identity.
Tags: 2013 montclair film festival, documentary, mff13, muhammad ali
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