With “King Richard” on the release horizon later this month, tennis fans already have one movie to look forward to this Fall. However, there’s a film about another American tennis great who broke through racial barriers a generation before Venus and Serena out soon, too.
READ MORE: ‘Citizen Ashe’ Examines Arthur Ashe’s Legacy Beyond Just Tennis [Telluride Review]
“Citizen Ashe” follows the life and career of Arthur Ashe, from his on-court success to his activism off of it and his death from AIDS-related complications in 1993. Co-directed by Emmy Award-winning filmmakers Rex Miller and Sam Pollard, the doc explores Ashe’s legacy as both a humanitarian and a tennis player.
Here’s the film’s official synopsis:
Using a blend of archival newsreel and family footage, Miller and Pollard take viewers along Ashe’s personal evolution, beginning with a youth deeply influenced by his early tennis mentor and the death of his mother. His elegant technical form helped him play at the highest of elite levels in tennis, a sport which, even today, has few non-white professional players. Contemporary interviews with Ashe’s widow, Jeanne Moutousammy-Ashe, his brother, Johnnie Ashe, as well as fellow tennis legends Billie Jean King, John McEnroe, Donald Dell, and Lenny Simpson, and activist Prof. Harry Edwards, illustrate the cultural resonance of his historic Grand Slam wins, and how he managed a quiet, stoic dignity in public, despite the racism he endured throughout his life and career. He really is an inspiration who used his celebrity to focus attention on injustice in America, and beyond.
“Citizen Ashe” had its world premiere at Telluride in September (read our review above). The film releases in select theaters, opening in NYC on December 3 and December 10 in LA, before a future streaming release on HBO MAX. Check out the film’s trailer below.
