FILM: I AM ALI

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I Am AliIt’s got to be hard making a documentary about one of the most famous human beings who ever lived (and still living actually). Countless books, biopic movies (one very good one starring Will Smith), past documentaries for sure have told the tale of Muhammad Ali infinitum. Clare Lewis’ new I Am Ali takes all of what we already know one step further though with some truly great insights culled from Ali’s personal archive of “audio journals” as well as interviews with family and friends.

Ali had a penchant for recording his kid’s voices when he’d call them or even sitting with them in person, as his daughter’s Maryum and Hana inform us with smiles and giggles recounting the wonderful family man Ali was to his ever expanding family. We hear lots of those recordings here, they serve as chapter breaks for the film and indeed you do hear Ali’s warmth for his family loud and clear. The man did father quite a few kids, but as we are told he managed to get them all together at his big house in L.A. in the summer to enjoy themselves and he ate them up it seems with love when he was with them.

That’s what’s great about this film, we see as much about Ali the family man as the fighter, his struggles avoiding the draft, changing his name, fighting for civil rights. The insight we get here to the man-Ken Norton says calling Ali a fighter is just one small part of who Ali is as a man-footage of Ali showing off his training facility in Deer Park, films and pictures of him with his kids and the loving way friends like Jim Brown and even his ex-wife regard the man, still reveal so much of this truly complex world-known figure. I Am Ali is a winner.

I AM ALI opens in theaters nationwide and On Demand on October 10, 2014.

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