Coming to PBS’s American Masters tomorrow, Friday, September 4: ALTHEA
Rex Miller’s portrait of a sports pioneer had its premiere at DOC NYC last year. Since then, it has screened at Full Frame, AFI Docs, Palm Beach, Athena, and the American Black Film Festival, among other events.
I previously wrote about the film for DOC NYC’s program, saying:
In the 1940s and 50s, long before Arthur Ashe or Venus and Serena Williams, Althea Gibson was the first African-American tennis player to become World Champion. Her singles wins at Wimbledon and Forest Hills drew worldwide attention and was celebrated with a ticker-tape parade along Broadway. Reintroducing the pioneering athlete to a new generation, Rex Miller’s bittersweet tribute reveals how a street kid from Harlem reached the pinnacle of an unlikely sport during the height of racial segregation.
what (not) to doc 