That pioneer spirit: Ali, circa 1973. Photo by Anton Perich
1973-74, 120 minutes, video
Where: Anthology Film Archives, 32 Second Avenue (at 2nd St.), New York, NY 10003, See Google Map | Subway Directions
Telephone: (212) 505-5181
Telephone: (212) 505-5181
Date: July 1, 2011
Time: 7:30pm
Ticket: $9
Time: 7:30pm
Ticket: $9
WKCR speaks with Anton Perich tonight at 9:30PM to discuss the making of the 1974 on MUHAMMAD ALI. Tune in at 89.9FM or at WKCR.ORG!
Film Notes
Made in collaboration with Victor Bockris and Andrew Wylie.
“In 1973 Victor Bockris and Andrew Wylie took me to Fighter’s Heaven, Muhammad Ali’s training camp in Deerlake, Pennsylvania, to videotape their interview with Ali. A few months later I came back to Deerlake with Ali’s friend Bernie and filmed some more training sessions, and Ali’s weekend with visits from children and tourists.
This film is about spending 2 hours with Muhammad Ali. It is about watching an athlete, a poet, and a philosopher, a dancer and choreographer, the first and last fine artist of boxing, and an adorer of children. It also captures the champion’s sense of humor.
The excerpts of this video were shown on Manhattan Cable Public Access in 1973, and then lost in my archives. In 2010 I edited this new version.” –A.P.
This film is about spending 2 hours with Muhammad Ali. It is about watching an athlete, a poet, and a philosopher, a dancer and choreographer, the first and last fine artist of boxing, and an adorer of children. It also captures the champion’s sense of humor.
The excerpts of this video were shown on Manhattan Cable Public Access in 1973, and then lost in my archives. In 2010 I edited this new version.” –A.P.
“The film is…a monument to the 1970s. It was a decade in which the heavyweight champion of the world would give such intimate access to a filmmaker who spent most of his time documenting the chic glam of the New York underground. And a decade in which a video pioneer, who normally filmed cutting-edge comedies, would focus on a celebration of Ali. It was the beginning of the Beat Punk Age, that time defined by cross-cultural, cross-generational collaborations between the Beat Generation writers of the fifties, the Counterculture Stars of the sixties, and the Punk Rockers of the seventies. This warm, intimate, revealing and at times starkly beautiful film reminds us of a time when art movements and artists set the tone, and when the silver-tongued Ali dazzled the world and made us proud to be American.” –Victor Bockris
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