A poet boxer. A child under the sun in a cotton field. The persistence of a young amateur boxer. A woman. Tenderness and absence. A portrait of a man with the wit and wisdom of those who have faced death.
When We Were Kings (1996)
It's 1974. Muhammad Ali is 32 and thought by many to be past his prime. George Foreman is ten years younger and the heavyweight champion of the world. Promoter Don King wants to make a name for himself and offers both fighters five million dollars apiece to fight one another, and when they accept, King has only to come up with the money. He finds a willing backer in Mobutu Sese Suko, the dictator of Zaire, and the "Rumble in the Jungle" is set, including a musical festival featuring some of America's top black performers, like James Brown and B.B. King.
Monzón (1970)
Short documentary about the origins of the boxer Carlos Monzón, made by the filmmaker Julio Toledo, who followed the athlete during his early years with the idea of making a film about his career and his journey as an international competitor.
Tyson (2008)
Director James Toback takes an unflinching, uncompromising look at the life of Mike Tyson--almost solely from the perspective of the man himself. TYSON alternates between the controversial boxer addressing the camera and shots of the champion's fights to create an arresting picture of the man.
La Bonita (2017)
Submerged under the blows and fury of the boxing ring, Daniela "La Bonita" Bermúdez, a young and introverted girl, aspires to be someone in life. Raised in a humble family of boxers, Daniela represents her only outlet for her family and she personifies the frustrated dream of her father, manager and coach.
Fisticuffs (1938)
This Pete Smith Specialty short showcases former heavyweight boxing champion Max Baer with various sparring partners in the ring. Slow motion is used to illustrate how Baer uses his skills.
I Am Durán (2019)
The story of four-time World Champion Panamanian boxer Roberto Durán. A one man wrecking-ball who took on the world, transcended his sport and helped inspire a nation to rise up against its CIA funded dictator to achieve independence. From his days shining shoes on the street, to packing out arenas across the world, this is the story of modern Panama and its most celebrated child.
Lionel (2008)
Lionel Rose, Australia's first Aboriginal world champion boxing hero - the man behind the myth
Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson (2004)
The story of Jack Johnson, the first African American Heavyweight boxing champion.
Men Boxing (1891)
Experimental film fragment made with the Edison-Dickson-Heise experimental horizontal-feed kinetograph camera and viewer, using 3/4-inch wide film.
The Guru (2019)
In the south of Chile on the Chiloé Island, Carlos Ruiz works as an operator in an industrial cannery. He is one of the cogs that makes the machine turn, except when he is a machine himself, like when he delivers blows on the punching-ball. A machine that dreams of glory. Because in his other life, Carlos is little-by-little becoming “the Guru”, who ceaselessly trains in what little leisure time he has so that he can win his match.
Le steak (1992)
The documentary is a portrait of former Canadian boxing champion Gaétan Hart, profiling both the ups and downs of his career in the 1970s and 1980s and his attempt to return to the sport in a 1990 fight. The film's title was inspired by "A Piece of Steak", Jack London's 1909 short story about a retired boxer struggling with poverty.
Day of the Fight (1951)
'Day of the Fight' shows Irish-American middleweight boxer Walter Cartier during the height of his career, on the day of a fight with black middleweight Bobby James, which took place on April 17, 1950.
Bobby Cassidy: Counterpuncher (2010)
A deeply human portrait of a boxer with the heart of a lion who refused to give up, in and outside of the ring. This documentary follows the fighter's life from a child who was taught how to hate, to a father who learned how to love.
Born and Bred (2011)
Born and Bred is a feature-length documentary film chronicling the lives of a new generation of young boxers fighting for their place in the American boxing capital of Los Angeles.
Conor McGregor: Notorious (2017)
Conor McGregor is the biggest star in the history of Mixed Martial Arts. Filmed over the course of 4 years, Notorious is the exclusive, all-access account of Conor’s meteoric rise from claiming benefits and living in his parents' spare room in Dublin to claiming multiple championship UFC belts and seven figure pay-packets in Las Vegas.
Viikinki (2022)
Documentary film about Tony Halme, masculinity and populism. The film follows how Tony Halme created a mythical, highly masculine freestyle wrestling character, The Viking, who gained fame both in the ring and in the public eye and eventually became captivated by it. With his brash speeches, Halme fired the starting shot for the rise of the Finns Party. The voice of a forgotten section of the population, a protest against the ruling elite, were the building blocks of Halme's popularity. Halme's great popularity has served as a good example of a populist figure, admired within the deep ranks of the nation, who comes from outside the political elite and changes the direction of politics. Also, despite - or perhaps because of - his openly racist statements, he was part of changing the political climate in Finland to a more acrimonious one.