The Beauty of Complexity: ‘Champs’ explores the social context around boxing

The last few weeks have been very busy. My first semester in the Broadcast and Online Journalism program at BCIT is near its end and I’ve been hard at work studying for final exams and finishing projects and assignments. While there have constantly been things to do, I’ve taken some time to watch a few documentaries. One in particular that left an impression on me was ‘Champs’, a 2015 film directed by Bert Marcus. The movie explores the lives and careers of three legendary boxers: Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, and Bernard Hopkins.

While there are many sports films that feature the stories of athletes, the majority of them feature a surface-level telling of their careers. What sets ‘Champs’ apart is that it not only tells the individual stories of these former world champions, but also contextualizes these experiences by presenting the social and historical context in which those events occurred.

Several academics are featured throughout the film, explaining the challenges and discrimination that the protagonists faced growing up as black men in mid-twentieth century America. One of the interviewees states that one can track which ethnic or racialized group is most disadvantaged in American society by the ethnicity of the world-boxing champion of the time. While in the early 1900s was something done by the privileged, it has not been so for a very long time and many children from poor communities participated in the hope of raising themselves and their families out of poverty.

Both Tyson and Hopkins spent time in prison during their teens or early twenties. The movie touches on the over-representation of men of African decent in prison and the rise of the prison industrial complex in the United States.

As a viewer, it was really interesting to hear these three men also talk about these social forces and explain their understanding of the ways their own lives have been impacted. It is powerful thing to watch.

It is this depth that makes documentary films like ‘Champs’ special. While the stories of these men’s successes are an important part of the narrative, the film also explores the larger social forces that impacted their lives and careers. While many of these concepts are complex and challenging. The filmmaker did a good job of presenting these ‘big’ ideas and presenting them in an accessible way. It is a movie that is at all times entertaining, moving, and thought provoking.