#NZFF Sporting Life
AUTUMN GOLD
Age neither defines nor limits five indomitable European athletes training for the World Masters Athletic Championships. Jiří (82) may have trouble reading the entrance forms, but he attacks the high jump with youthful zeal. Discus thrower Alfred (100) admits that years bring age spots, but so long as limbs work he’s not too bothered. Herbert (93), preparing for the 100-metre sprint, dispels notions about what body parts men in their 90s can raise. Ilse holds the shot put world record for the over-85s, while Gabre questions what exactly ‘old woman’ means. Whatever such a creature is, it isn’t her and she won’t discuss her age. This engaging bunch generously welcomes us into their lives, on and off track and field, and candidly shares personal histories. Their resilience is flabbergasting, their determination inspirational. All are lucid about what lies ahead in the long run; perhaps this is what drives them to make the most of the present. The wisdom, passion and humour with which they do so qualify them all as champions. — SR
BOBBY FISCHER AGAINST THE WORLD
Forty years ago a game of chess brought the world to a standstill. The 1972 World Chess Championship in Reykjaviksaw Bobby Fischer, America’s rock-star chess player, take on Boris Spassky, the sleek show pony of the Soviet Union’s colossal chess programme. The prickly, unpredictable, self-determining American versus the cool paragon of Soviet cohesion: they were fighting the Cold War mano a mano on a chessboard. Left to his own devices by his activist single mother, Fischer had taken up chess at six and made himselfUS champion by 15, but he was never cut out to don the mantle of American hero. Thoroughly researched and richly archived, Liz Garbus’ portrait delves into his remarkable rise, his legendary triumphs and his decline into tabloid notoriety as a recluse and political pariah. — BG
“Compelling… fleshed out by interviews with those who knew Fischer best, psychologically revealing archival footage, and Harry Benson’s poignant, iconic photos… Fischer’s troubled genius infuses the film.” — John Lopez, Vanity Fair
SENNA
You don’t have to be a petrolhead to ‘get’ the legend of Formula One racer Ayrton Senna. Ask any Brazilian – or check out the most enthralling big-screen sports documentary since When We Were Kings. Senna’s career on and off the track is traced through voice-over interviews and carefully restored archival material, much of it never seen before. — BG
“Fans of Formula One racing will know at once that this is a film about the legendary Brazilian Ayrton Senna, considered by some to be the greatest driver who ever lived. A boy genius behind the wheel, capable of pushing cars beyond their capacity, Senna won 33 races and three Grand Prix titles before dying in a crash in 1994 at age 34… Senna is bursting with great racing sequences, many dealing with his bitter rivalry with French champion Alain Prost. But what makes this film so riveting is the remarkable personality of the man himself. Someone who just flat-out loved to drive, Senna was a purist who had complete disdain for the politics that had to be played in the cliquish Formula One world… A philosophical mystic with a jewel thief’s nerves and a poet’s sensitivity (and good looks), Senna was an altogether remarkable human being.” — Kenneth Turan, LA Times
“The footage is tremendous… Races we’ve watched and rewatched a hundred times seem fresh and different as new camera angles of some of the sport’s defining moments come to life on a gigantic screen and in soaring, screaming surround sound… From drivers’ briefings to personal home movies, the film provides a side to Senna and to the world of Formula One that genuinely has never really been seen before.” — Will Buxton, speedtv.com
BOXING GYM
The great documentarian of institutions in action, Frederick Wiseman turns 80 with a connoisseur’s eye for the agility, the darting rhythms and precision of boxers in training. His latest film has something else in common with its immediate predecessor, La Danse: it’s a picture of an institution that enhances the lives it touches, a neighbourhood gym where an amazing range of races, ages and skill levels find self-assurance through partnership and discipline. — BG
“[A] brisk, lightweight, unexpectedly genial look at Lord’s Boxing Gym, a spot for wannabe pugilists in Austin, Texas. Whether stationed at the edge of the ring or between punching bags, the observational camera takes in all the contenders passing through – men and women, adults and children, beginners and professional… Rather than a fixation on the violence of the sport, there’s a serene appreciation of muscle, sinew, and movement… It’s hard to fault Wiseman’s optimistic contemplation of the almost familial atmosphere of democratic athleticism on the screen.” — Fernando Croce, slantmagazine.com
FIRE IN BABYLON
Stevan Riley’s exuberant documentary is much more than just a cricket film. In fact, the story of the West Indies’ late 70s ascension from happy-go-lucky ‘calypso cricketers’ to world beaters is such riotous fun that you won’t need to know your googlies from your bouncers to get a big kick out of it. New interviews with players such as inspirational captain Clive Lloyd, fast bowler Michael Holding and the ice cool Viv Richards bring vintage test match footage to vibrant life. Unfolding as a classic underdog tale, Riley’s film places the narrative firmly within the civil rights movement and nascent reggae-powered Caribbean nationalism. Steeled by colonial oppression, Lloyd instilled an uncompromising attitude in his charges, subverting the old elite and leading the Windies to strike back in historic victories overEnglandandAustraliaby the end of the decade. Though they did lose an acrimonious series in New Zealand in 1980 (not mentioned in this film, ahem), their 15-year unbeaten run remains unsurpassed. — MM
“The West Indiesplayers were part of a generation determined to prove themselves against their former colonial masters… When the English captain of the era, Tony Greig, infamously boasted in 1976 that he would make the West Indies‘grovel,’ they made him eat his words. There is comedy, pathos and violence in the imagery of English batsmen like Greig… facing up to the fast-bowling attack led by Michael Holding, Joel Garner and Andy Roberts. It is cinematic too… At one point, when Viv Richards is batting and you see him on the big screen hammer a ball, he hits it so hard that the instinct is to duck.” — Geoffrey Macnab, The Independent
“Joyous and uplifting… a celebration of a sporting triumph and all its implications for black politics and culture.” — Marc Lee, Daily Telegraph
