Facing Ali is a 2009 documentary directed by Pete McCormack about Muhammad Ali

Muhammad Ali

Muhammad Ali is an American former professional boxer, philanthropist and social activist...

 (born Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr. in Louisville

Louisville, Kentucky

Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...

, Kentucky

Kentucky

The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...

) as told from the perspectives of some of the notable opponents he faced during his career: George Chuvalo

George Chuvalo

George Louis Chuvalo, CM is a retired Canadian heavyweight boxer who was never knocked down in ninety-three professional fights between 1956 and 1979. He is often considered to have had the greatest chin in the history of boxing and to be one of its most durable fighters...

, Sir Henry Cooper

Henry Cooper (boxer)

Sir Henry Cooper OBE KSG was an English heavyweight boxer known for the effectiveness of his left hook, "Enry's 'Ammer", and his knockdown of the young Muhammad Ali...

, George Foreman

George Foreman

George Edward Foreman is an American two-time former World Heavyweight Boxing Champion, Olympic gold medalist, ordained Baptist minister, author and successful entrepreneur...

, "Smokin'" Joe Frazier

Joe Frazier

Joseph William "Joe" Frazier , also known as Smokin' Joe, was an Olympic and Undisputed World Heavyweight boxing champion, whose professional career lasted from 1965 to 1976, with a one-fight comeback in 1981....

, Larry Holmes

Larry Holmes

Larry Holmes is a former professional boxer. He grew up in Easton, Pennsylvania, which gave birth to his boxing nickname, The Easton Assassin....

 (a former sparring partner

Sparring

Sparring is a form of training common to many martial arts. Although the precise form varies, it is essentially relatively 'free-form' fighting, with enough rules, customs, or agreements to make injuries unlikely...

 of Ali), Ron Lyle

Ron Lyle

Ron Lyle was an American professional boxer in the heavyweight division. He is considered to have been one of the best contenders of his era. He was a crowd-pleasing power puncher.-Early life:...

, Ken Norton

Ken Norton

Kenneth Howard Norton Sr. is a former heavyweight boxer. He is best known for his 12-round victory over a peak Muhammad Ali where he famously broke Ali's jaw, on March 31, 1973, becoming only the second man to defeat Ali as a professional .He and Ali...

, Earnie Shavers

Earnie Shavers

Earnie Dee Shaver , better known as Earnie Shavers, is an American former professional boxer and is widely considered along with George Foreman as the hardest punchers of all time...

, Leon Spinks

Leon Spinks

Leon Spinks is a former American boxer. He had an overall record of 26 wins, 17 losses and 3 draws as a professional, with 14 knockout wins, and was the former World Boxing Council and World Boxing Association heavyweight champion of the world...

 and Ernie Terrell

Ernie Terrell

Ernie Terrell is an American singer, record producer, and former World Boxing Association heavyweight boxing champion. At , he was very tall, by the standards of the day....

.

Production is credited to Canadian producer Derik Murray and his company, Network Entertainment, Lions Gate Entertainment

Lions Gate Entertainment

Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation is a North American entertainment company. The company was formed in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1997, and is headquartered in Santa Monica, California...

, and Spike Sports in association with Muhammad Ali Enterprises.

The fighters discuss their bouts against Muhammad Ali as well as their own lives and careers; Ali's fights against other opponents; his conversion to Islam

Islam

Islam . The most common are and .   : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

 and the assumption of the name Muhammad Ali; his relationship with the Nation of Islam

Nation of Islam

The Nation of Islam is a mainly African-American new religious movement founded in Detroit, Michigan by Wallace D. Fard Muhammad in July 1930 to improve the spiritual, mental, social, and economic condition of African-Americans in the United States of America. The movement teaches black pride and...

 organization (frequently referred to as the "black

African American

African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...

 Muslims"), its leader, Elijah Muhammad

Elijah Muhammad

Elijah Muhammad was an African American religious leader, and led the Nation of Islam from 1934 until his death in 1975...

 (who bestowed Ali with his new name after he was briefly called Cassius X), and the Nation of Islam's most prominent minister, Malcolm X

Malcolm X

Malcolm X , born Malcolm Little and also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz , was an African American Muslim minister and human rights activist. To his admirers he was a courageous advocate for the rights of African Americans, a man who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its...

; Ali's refusal to be inducted

Conscientious objector

A conscientious objector is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, and/or religion....

 into the United States Army

United States Army

The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...

 to serve in the ongoing Vietnam

Vietnam

Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...

 War

Vietnam War

The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...

 in 1967 on moral

Morality

Morality is the differentiation among intentions, decisions, and actions between those that are good and bad . A moral code is a system of morality and a moral is any one practice or teaching within a moral code...

 and religious

Religion

Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...

 grounds; the decision by the New York State

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 Athletic Commission

New York State Athletic Commission

The New York State Athletic Commission or NYSAC, also known as the New York Athletic Commission, regulates all contests and exhibitions of unarmed combat within the state of New York, including licensure and supervision of promoters, boxers, professional wrestlers, seconds, ring officials,...

 to strip him of his championship; his legal case

Clay v. United States

Clay v. United States, , was boxer Muhammad Ali's appeal of his conviction for refusing to report for induction into the United States military forces during the Vietnam War. His local draft board had rejected his application for conscientious objector classification...

 and his reinstatement after the favorable June 28, 1970 decision by the Supreme Court of the United States

Supreme Court of the United States

The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...

. The Justices decided 8-0 (with Thurgood Marshall

Thurgood Marshall

Thurgood Marshall was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, serving from October 1967 until October 1991...

 abstaining), that "... for the reasons stated, that the Department [of Justice

United States Department of Justice

The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...

] was simply wrong as a matter of law in advising that the petitioner's beliefs were not religiously based and were not sincerely held".

Sonny Liston

Sonny Liston

Charles L. "Sonny" Liston was a professional boxer and ex-convict known for his toughness, punching power, and intimidating appearance who became world heavyweight champion in 1962 by knocking out Floyd Patterson in the first round...

, who died in 1970, appears in archival footage. Liston and Ali fought in two notable matches in 1964 and 1965, respectively. The cover art for the DVD

DVD

A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

 is Neil Leifer's

Neil Leifer

Neil Leifer is a photographer and filmmaker known mainly for his work in the Time Inc. family of magazines. He is generally considered the greatest sports photographer in history.- Early career :...

 iconic photograph from their controversial second fight in Lewiston

Lewiston, Maine

Lewiston is a city in Androscoggin County in Maine, and the second-largest city in the state. The population was 41,592 at the 2010 census. It is one of two principal cities of and included within the Lewiston-Auburn, Maine metropolitan New England city and town area and the Lewiston-Auburn, Maine...

, Maine

Maine

Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...

 in which many, such as George Chuvalo

George Chuvalo

George Louis Chuvalo, CM is a retired Canadian heavyweight boxer who was never knocked down in ninety-three professional fights between 1956 and 1979. He is often considered to have had the greatest chin in the history of boxing and to be one of its most durable fighters...

, allege that Sonny Liston deliberately lost.

Muhammad Ali's present medical condition

Former British

Great Britain

Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

 champion Sir Henry Cooper

Henry Cooper (boxer)

Sir Henry Cooper OBE KSG was an English heavyweight boxer known for the effectiveness of his left hook, "Enry's 'Ammer", and his knockdown of the young Muhammad Ali...

 briefly discusses the cumulative effects of boxing on Muhammad Ali's health. He states that Ali actually suffers from "Parkinson's Syndrome" rather than Parkinson's Disease

Parkinson's disease

Parkinson's disease is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system...

 and that Ali's doctor had personally told him that the cause was Ali taking frequent punches to the back of his neck and that these blows killed brain cells which trigger the release of an important chemical. George Chuvalo stated that he believes Ali's condition was caused either by boxing and or a predisposition for the disease.

Awards

Although eligible for nomination for an Academy Award in the documentary feature category, it was not so honored. However, it won awards at the Vancouver Film Critics Circle

Vancouver Film Critics Circle

The Vancouver Film Critics Circle was founded to represent Vancouver's print, on-line and broadcast media and honours the best in Canadian and international filmmaking.-Award categories:International*Best Film*Best Director*Best Actor...

 and the Vancouver International Film Festival

Vancouver International Film Festival

The Vancouver International Film Festival is an annual film festival held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada for two weeks in late September and early October...

.