Reeltime at EPL: The Trials of Muhammad Ali

Tuesday, March 11, 7 pm, 1st Floor Community Meeting Room, Main Library

The acclaimed new documentary The Trials of Muhammad Ali by Academy Award-nominated director Bill Siegel covers boxing legend Muhammad Ali's toughest bout: his battle to overturn the five-year prison sentence he received for refusing U.S. military service. The Trials of Muhammad Ali is not a boxing film. It is a fight film tracing a formative period in Ali’s life, one that is remarkably unknown to young people today.

Prior to becoming the most recognizable face on earth, Cassius Clay became Muhammad Ali and found himself in the crosshairs of conflicts concerning civil rights, religion, and wartime dissent. The fury he faced from an American public enraged by his opposition to the Vietnam War and unwilling to accept his conversion to Islam, has global implications for generations now coming of age amidst contemporary fissures involving freedom, faith and military conflict.

Produced by Chicago’s legendary Kartemquin Films, The Trials of Muhammad Ali examines how one of the most celebrated sports champions of the 20th century risked fame and fortune to follow his faith and conscience. With director Bill Siegel and producer Rachel Pikelny in person!

Co-presented with ITVS Community Cinema, Independent Lens and WTTW.

Part of 11 Months of African American History series and the Muslim Journeys program and discussion series. The Reeltime film and discussion series is a program of Percolator Films, Evanston's non-profit film arts organization.