{"id":2021,"date":"2014-04-14T09:39:02","date_gmt":"2014-04-14T16:39:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/blog\/?p=5529"},"modified":"2023-08-28T17:14:04","modified_gmt":"2023-08-29T00:14:04","slug":"bill-siegels-docs-biggest-impact","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/blog\/bill-siegels-docs-biggest-impact\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill Siegel’s 12 Documentaries That Had Biggest Impact on Him"},"content":{"rendered":"

Documentary filmmaker Bill Siegel, whose previous film (co-directed with Sam Green) The Weather Underground<\/i><\/a> was nominated for an Oscar, returned to the world of American political activism and history with\u00a0The Trials of Muhammad Ali<\/i><\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Bill Siegel\u2019s audacious documentary puts new heat and focus on what an extraordinary figure Muhammad Ali was outside the boxing ring. No film has probed this deeply into the fallout from his name change or his complex bond with Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam. And the saga of Ali\u2019s refusal to be drafted during Vietnam becomes a profile in courage \u2014 a tale of shocking vilification and faith lost and found. A-“\u2014\u00a0Owen Gleiberman,\u00a0Entertainment Weekly<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“With the freshness and urgency of unexplored history, Siegel\u2019s film allows us to set aside the goggles through which we view Muhammad Ali today… sheds fascinating new light on one of the most elusive and complicated public figures of the 20th century. Anyone who wants to understand what happened to America during those turbulent years needs to see this film.”\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Andrew O’Hehir,\u00a0Salon<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In honor of Independent Lens<\/em> presenting\u00a0Trials of Muhammad Ali<\/i>, Siegel was kind enough to put together a list for us of 12 films that have influenced him in his career in documentary. Take it away, Bill!<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Here’s a list of some documentary films that have had a big impact on me in one way or another:<\/p>\n

The War at Home<\/i><\/a>, Glenn Silber, Barry Alexander Brown
\nI saw this when I was in high school in Minneapolis and it fueled my desire to go to college at UW-Madison. From watching the film, I figured if I went there, I’d learn at least as much outside the classroom as inside. Although the foment depicted in the film was largely gone by the time I got to campus during Reagan\u2019s Morning In America, I was still right about the learning.<\/p>\n

Eyes on the Prize<\/i>,<\/a>\u00a0produced by Blackside
\nThis came out when I first moved to Chicago right out of UW-Madison. I was struggling to find my voice as a storyteller, I was writing fiction, I interned at In These Times, eventually I went to grad school at the Columbia Journalism School in NYC, I volunteered at WBAI radio and got my ass kicked by Amy Goodman (who deserves a Pulitzer!), but the weaving of the archival footage and profound storytelling in Eyes on the Prize\u00a0<\/em>helped me realize that visual, non-fiction media was the storytelling device I’d been seeking to develop in myself all along. A landmark documentary then, now, and forever.<\/p>\n

When We Were Kings<\/i><\/a>, Leon Gast
\n[Editor\u2019s note: Siegel was a writer on <\/em>One Love, a documentary on the cultural history of basketball by Gast<\/em>]
\nObviously, I’m biased, Leon\u2019s my man! I met him in NYC while I was working as a researcher on yet another Ali doc. Leon had come aboard that project, bringing his own trove of footage that he’d shot in Zaire and had already been working with for years. When the project we were on collapsed, Leon pulled his segment out, kept working on it and it became Kings<\/em>. So I learned a lot about never surrendering from Leon, among many, many other things. He was in my corner for the entire time it took me to make The Trials of Muhammad Ali<\/em>. He and I joked that I was making Before We Were Kings<\/em>. Sometimes, I wish I’d gone ahead and used that title!<\/p>\n