Olympic Pride, American Prejudice

In 1936, 18 African-American athletes - dubbed the "black auxiliary" by Hitler - participated in the Berlin Olympic Games, defying Nazi Aryan supremacy and Jim Crow racism. Despite their achievements, history forgot all except one, Jesse Owens. "Olympic Pride, American Prejudice" is the story of the other 17. Their heroic collective action created a seminal moment in civil rights. The film follows the athletes from the attempted boycott of the 1936 Olympics to their triumph at the Games and then to their unceremonious return to America. Variety praises SLIFF alum Deborah Riley Draper ("Versailles 73") for "an absorbing job of capturing a historical moment that was even more fraught than it's generally imagined to be," and hails "Olympic Pride, American Prejudice" for reclaiming "the story of those 17 men and women: trailblazers who kicked open the door to a new society as much as Jackie Robinson did when he debuted on the Brooklyn Dodgers playing field 11 years later. (One of the 17 was, in fact, Robinson's older brother, Mack Robinson.)" (St. Louis International Film Festival)