Olympic Pride, American Prejudice

  • Olympic Pride, American Prejudice
Genre : Biography
Type : Documentary
Original title :
Principal country concerned : Column : Cinema/tv
Year of production : 2016
Format : Feature
Running time : 80 (in minutes)
http://www.1936olympicsmovie.com/

OLYMPIC PRIDE, AMERICAN PREJUDICE explores the experiences of 18 African American Olympians who defied Jim Crow and Adolf Hitler to win hearts and medals at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. Set against the strained and turbulent atmosphere of a racially divided America, which was torn between boycotting Hitler's Olympics or participating in the Third Reich's grandest affair, the film follows 16 men and two women before, during and after their heroic turn at the Summer Olympic Games in Berlin. They represented a country that considered them second class citizens and competed in a country that rolled out the red carpet in spite of an undercurrent of Aryan superiority and anti-Semitism.

They were world heroes yet returned home to a short-lived glory. This story is complicated. This story is triumphant but unheralded. This story is a vital part of history and is as relevant today as it was almost 80 years ago.

Since the 1936 Olympics was a well-documented event, this film will utilize the wealth of newsreel material, newspaper articles, photographs, personal interviews and never-before-seen footage as well as resources from the personal archival collections of Olympians and organizations in both the U.S. and Germany.

A film by Deborah Riley Draper

USA, 2016, Documentary, 80 minutes

starring Carl Lewis, Anita DeFrantz, Isiah Thomas, Lonnie Bunch, Harry Edwards



Writer and director: Deborah Riley Draper
Narrated by Blair Underwood
Executive producers: Dr. Amy Tiemann, Michael A. Draper and Blair Underwood

The film is produced by Coffee Bluff Pictures (www.coffeebluffpictures)

Film in theatres starting August 5th, 2016, in New York and LA.

Pre-order DVD on Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Olympic-Pride-American-Prejudice-Underwood/dp/B01JBAQA3U

Studio: Gravitas Ventures
DVD Release Date: December 6, 2016
Run Time: 80 minutes

Partners

  • Arterial network
  • Media, Sports and Entertainment Group (MSE)
  • Gens de la Caraïbe
  • Groupe 30 Afrique
  • Alliance Française VANUATU
  • PACIFIC ARTS ALLIANCE
  • FURTHER ARTS
  • Zimbabwe : Culture Fund Of Zimbabwe Trust
  • RDC : Groupe TACCEMS
  • Rwanda : Positive Production
  • Togo : Kadam Kadam
  • Niger : ONG Culture Art Humanité
  • Collectif 2004 Images
  • Africultures Burkina-Faso
  • Bénincultures / Editions Plurielles
  • Africiné
  • Afrilivres

With the support of