For Release: 2008-07-29 14:11:00
Fight doctor Ferdie Pacheco once said, “Cassius Clay was born in Louisville; Muhammad Ali was born in Miami.” That one comment sent filmmaker Gaspar Gonzalez on an odyssey to document the city’s crucial role in a pivotal point in Ali’s life. The result is Muhammad Ali: Made in Miami, which shows how the “Louisville Lip” evolved into one of the most significant cultural figures of our time. It airs Monday, Aug. 11 at 10/9 p.m. CT on KET2 and KET HD and Thursday, Aug. 14 at 9/8 p.m. CT on KET1 and KET HD.Cassius Clay arrived in Miami in the fall of 1960, fresh from earning an Olympic gold medal as a light-heavyweight boxer in the Rome Olympics. Over the course of the next few years, coinciding with the height of the national civil rights movement, Clay evolved both professionally and politically, piling up victories and adopting the black separatist teachings of the Nation of Islam. It was in this period that Cassius Clay became Muhammad Ali.
Muhammad Ali: Made in Miami is not only Ali’s story, but the story of Miami’s black community and the Fifth Street Gym. The film combines rarely seen footage with interviews with Dundee, fight doctor Pacheco, Ali’s Miami neighbors, former Overtown residents, and sportswriters and photographers who covered the young phenom, as well as nationally recognized figures such as best-selling Ali biographer Thomas Hauser, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Remnick and Columbia University historian Manning Marable.
Until now, Muhammad Ali’s time in Miami has been treated as little more than prologue to his worldwide fame. Muhammad Ali: Made in Miami argues that, without Miami, there might never have been a Muhammad Ali.
Muhammad Ali: Made in Miami is produced by WLRN/Miami. More information about KET programming and education services, as well as how to support KET, can be found at www.ket.org.
Contact: Ellen Soileau
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