ReadingSalute: Filmic Representations of Sports History

Field: Arts and Humanities (Social Sciences)

Abstract The Black Power Salute protest by athletes John Carlos and Tommie Smith on the medal dais during the 1968 Mexico City Olympic Games, supported by silver-medallist Peter Norman, has been recognised as a seminal moment in sports history, Olympic history and race relations. This article examines the filmic history of this event as represented in Salute, a 2008 film documentary. We argue that understanding contemporary films requires more than an analysis of on-screen representations and is vastly enriched through embracing the ways in which films are circulated between producers, directors, advertisers, merchandisers and audiences. Accordingly, this article combines a textual analysis of Salute with an exploration of how new media influence the dissemination, reception and consumption of the film. The textual analysis explores Salute as a documentary film biography through dominant narratives and documentary strategies that characterise this genre of filmic history. Associated new media are considered from two perspectives: how they facilitate the active intervention of the film-maker in the reception of a film, and how new media provide opportunities for audience interactivity with films and film-makers. Linking new media with a textual analysis of Salute provides insights into the ways in which the past is circulated in the present. Keywords: audience studiesBlack Power Saluteblogsfilminternetnew mediaPeter Norman1968 Mexico City OlympicsYouTube Notes 1. While standard academic convention is to identify all spelling errors in citations, this essay will adopt the common practice in the new media of deliberately reproducing original spelling, grammar and punctuation without acknowledging the errors. 'Karen', 'USA Black History Month: Black Power Salute', 10 Feb. 2010, available online at http://speedendurance.com/2010/02/10/usa–black–history–month–black–power–salute/. 2. 'kirbycee', 'IMDb', 21 July 2008, available online at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0874317/board/thread/112419495. 3. 'Maatakiri Rapira Te Ruki', 'Facebook: Salute the Movie', 12 Jan. 2010, available online at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=wall&gid=50230816667. 4. Salute, directed by Matt Norman. 5. Osmond, 'Photographs, Materiality and Sport History'. 6. See also Black Power Salute; Fists of Freedom. 7. See, for example: Toulmin, '"Vivid and Realistic"'; Whannel, 'The Four Minute Mythology'. 8. Phillips and Osmond. 'Filmic Sports History'. 9. Hughes-Warrington, History Goes to the Movies, 6. 10. Leonard, 'New Media and Global Sporting Cultures', 2. 11. Ibid., 4. 12. Fornäs et al.,'Into Digital Borderlands', 3–4. 13. Ibid., 25. 14. 'Salute', http://www.salutethemovie.com/. 15. Osmond, 'Photographs, Materiality and Sport History'. 16. 'Salute International Teaser', http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAHsYmaodkA; 'Salute Australian Teaser', http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KehurGWpYBU. Emphasis added. 17. http://www.salutethemovie.com/index2.html#/Salute%20Film%20Teasers. 18. Ibid. 19. Ibid. 20. The film received renewed attention during the 2010 Black History Month in the USA: http://speedendurance.com/2010/02/10/usa–black–history–month–black–power–salute/. 21. Emphasis added. 22. 'Salute', http://www.salutethemovie.com/. 23. Ibid. 24. Sydney Morning Herald, 17 July 2008, 19. 25. Many examples of Internet studies have been critiqued for their silence on music and visuals in websites: see, for example Fornäs et al., 'Into Digital Borderlands', 11. 26. 'Salute Australian Teaser'. 27. Rosenstone, History on Film/Film on History, 93. 28. Hughes-Warrington, History Goes to the Movies, 125. 29. Rosenstone, History on Film/Film on History, 73. 30. Munslow, Narrative and History, 44–63. 31. Smith, 'Frozen Fists in Speed City'. 32. Ibid. 33. For example, see: Hartmann, Race, Culture, and the Revolt of the Black Athlete; Lipsyte, 'Backlash Defined a Gesture'. 34. 'highhurdles', 'Salute The Movie: www.salutethemovie.com – Australian Teaser', 2009 (no date), available online at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KehurGWpYBU. 35. See, for example: Real, 'Sports Online'; Mahan and McDaniel, 'The New Online Arena'; Leonard, special issue of Sociology of Sport Journal. 36. Leonard, 'New Media and Global Sporting Cultures', 1–2. 37. Markley, 'History, Theory, and Virtual Reality', 297. 38. Bruns and Jacobs, Uses of Blogs, 2–3; Bruns, 'What's Next for Blogging?', 250; Efimova, 'Discovering the Iceberg of Knowledge Work', 4. 39. Harindranath, Audience-Citizens, 16–18; Press and Livingstone. 'Taking Audience Research into the Age of New Media', 188–90. 40. See, for example, Bruns and Jacobs, Uses of Blogs; Lovink, Zero Comments; Rettberg, Blogging. 41. Bruce and Wensing, '"She's Not One of Us"', 92. See also Gregory and Hutchins, 'Everyday Editorial Practices and the Public Sphere'. 42. 'Judy', 'At the Movies', 4 Sept. 2008, available online at http://www.abc.net.au/atthemovies/txt/s2284133.htm. 43. 'kissmyARToxo', 'Salute The Movie: www.salutethemovie.com – International Teaser', September 2009, available online at http://www.youtube.com/comment_servlet?all_comments&v=KAHsYmaodkA. 44. 'Linda Noordewier', 'At the Movies', 19 July 2008, available online at http://www.abc.net.au/atthemovies/txt/s2284133.htm. 45. 'girlieB', The Internet Movie Database, 21 Feb. 2009, available online at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0874317/board/thread/112419495?d=131066995&p=1#131066995. 46. Johnstone and Norman, A Race to Remember, 175–88, 266–68, ch. 12. 47. Ibid., ch.14. 48. Ibid., 270–71. 49. Rosenstone, Visions of the Past. 50. de Groot, Consuming History.