Photo courtesy Universal Pictures
I AM DURÁN
Director:
Mat Hodgson
World Premiere:
VOD release (June 2019)
About:
The story of Panamanian boxing champion Roberto Durán.
Durán is known to boxing fans as a multi-class world champion with an exceptionally long career for the sport, competing from 1968 until 2001. Mat Hodgson’s professional, albeit conventional, sports doc recounts the fighter’s rise and fall, played out against the backdrop of Panamanian politics to not always successful effect. From underprivileged beginnings, Durán elevated his economic and social status through boxing, becoming an icon in his country and gaining fame on the international boxing circuit, eventually fighting America’s beloved Sugar Ray Leonard in a contentious fight and later infamous “No más” rematch, reviewed here in depth. In addition to reviewing the boxer’s life and career, Hodgson provides an interesting look at how boxing promotion operates, and how the sport developed in popularity and financially over Durán’s career. The project never quite transcends its genre to explore the deeper issues it seems to want to, but succeeds as a sports doc for devoted fans.
what (not) to doc 