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When boxing great Muhammad Ali passed away in 2016, former Bahrain resident Art Jones was in Atlanta, the city that saw the rebirth of the legendary boxer’s career in 1970… a moment that has inspired Art’s documentary Ali’s Comeback.
The 71-year-old filmmaker, who lived in Bahrain from 2000 to 2010, is now hoping to screen the 2020 film in the kingdom and across the Middle East, as his way of correcting the “off-centre” Western portrayal of the boxer’s life and especially his religious choices.
“I noticed that the Western depiction of Muhammad Ali tended to be very skewed, and most of the films about him focused on either his early life or his later years, but I specifically wanted to focus on how Atlanta played such an instrumental role in him being able to fight again after he was barred from the sport for more than four years,” Art told GulfWeekly during an interview.
In 1966, when Muhammad Ali, born Cassius Clay, refused to be inducted into the US armed forces during the Vietnam War, he was systematically barred from his favourite sport when his boxing licence was denied in every state.
When he began to speak out against the war, he was widely condemned by American media, until one definitive moment in 1970.
“You see, the world did not witness the full extent of Ali’s boxing capabilities, because for more than four of his best years, between the ages of 24 and 28, he was barred from the ring,” Art added.
“That is, until 1970, when a young but very driven young attorney Robert Kassel took on the Muhammad Ali file at Sports Action Inc and after failing to get a licence in Miami or New Orleans, he called his father-in-law Harry Pett, who got on the phone with Leroy Johnson, Georgia’s first black state senator in more than 50 years.”
Leroy then began to research if there would be any legal obstacles preventing Muhammad Ali from boxing in Georgia and realised that there was no state boxing commission and individual municipalities granted licences.
The senator called Mayor Sam Massell and told him about his plans to bring Ali to Atlanta.
The mayor, who had been in his seat for less than a year and owed a big part of his position to Leroy courting African-American votes for him, was stunned at first.
He eventually relented, but there was more political wrangling yet to be done.
This is the story that Art tells with his film, chronicling interviews with Khalila Ali, Muhammad Ali’s then-wife, as well as one of Martin Luther King Jr’s colleagues and friends Andrew Young, who had made Muhammad Ali’s comeback a personal goal.
“The fight did eventually take place on October 26, 1970,” Art added.
“In the lead-up to the fight, the local police department and those opposed to seeing Muhammad Ali return did everything to have the fight cancelled. Sam Massell’s family property was burned down and even Muhammad Ali’s opponent Jerry Quarry was threatened.
“The fight itself was more than just a boxing match - attended by actors, entertainers and civil rights activists. Even Jimmy Carter, who would later become US President, was at that fight!”
According to Art, even the Kremlin in Russia called Washington and requested a satellite connection to broadcast the fight and witness the great Muhammad Ali rising from the ashes, after being stripped of his title four years earlier.
Art worked with producer Brittany Wyatt, line producer Mandy Fason, associate producer and friend from Bahrain Suha Al Khalifa, musical composer Maxi Priest as well as sports historian Idy Uyoe to put together the documentary.
The film also includes interviews with athlete and activist Jim Brown, five-time heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield as well as Robert.
For Art, not only was Muhammad Ali’s iconic status a true inspiration, the biased telling of the boxer’s story rhymed with how he had seen Arab women portrayed in Western media during the Iraq War.
“During my time in Bahrain, I made a film called Models of Success, which was my way of correcting the off-centre view that Arab women are relentlessly oppressed, and this was an opportunity to correct another off-centre view,” he explained.
Art taught at the Bahrain University during his first few years in Bahrain before moving to Ahlia University, where he spearheaded the construction of their brand-new media production centre.
He remembers his time in Bahrain fondly, and is grateful for the opportunity to make friends with locals from across the region – friendships which gave him a more nuanced perspective on culture and religion informing both Models of Success and Ali’s Comeback.
The 87-minute Ali’s Comeback was released in February 2020 at the Atlanta History Centre, merely weeks before the Covid-19 pandemic forced the shutdown of cinemas.
Only as cinemas and other venues started to open up last year, did his film finally start to gain traction and there will be another screening of the film in two weeks on January 17, Muhammad Ali’s birthday, at the DuSable Black History Museum in Chicago, Illinois, the only state to have a Muhammad Ali holiday on his birthday.
Art is also hoping to find partners in Bahrain and the Middle East region to premiere the film regionally.
For more details, email art@dreamfactorymc.com
FACTFILE
Born: January 17, 1942 in Louisville, Kentucky, USA.
Died: June 3, 2016 in Scottsdale, Arizona, USA.
Nicknamed “The Greatest”, he is regarded as one of the most significant sports figures of the 20th century, and frequently ranked as the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time.
Born Cassius Clay, he changed his name in 1964 after he converted to Islam.
He refused to be drafted into the army in 1966, citing his religious beliefs, which led to him being stripped of his boxing titles.
Out of a total 61 fights at the professional heavyweight level, he won 56, of which 37 wins were by knock-out.
