Lionel (2008)

In 1968 a young aboriginal boxer with a charming smile punched his way to history when he stopped Fighting Harada in Japan over fifteen rounds. His name was Lionel Rose and he became the undisputed world bantamweight champion. Two hundred and fifty thousand people hit the streets of Melbourne to welcome him back and he went on to become a symbolic figure in the interracial politics of the times. Combining a remarkable selection of archival and present day observational footage and interviews, the film explores how Lionel became a mythic sporting figure and his struggle with the dimensions of that myth in his every day life.