Joe Frazier: When the Smoke Clears

A unique film on the final years of Joe Frazier’s life recently premiered on Hulu. The film is free to view on www.hulu.com throughout February. The direct link to the film is: http://www.hulu.com/watch/322857/joe-frazier-when-the-smoke-clears.

Over four years in the making, “Joe Frazier: When the Smoke Clears” tells the story Frazier’s life, career and the sad demise of his Philadelphia gym. Narrated by Joe’s son Marvis, the film has quite a story behind it. With unprecedented access to Joe’s life during his last years, the doc reveals a human side to the legendary fighter and shines a light on a unique icon.

Joe was due to attend the film’s festival premiere at New York’s DocNYC in November but in a sad and strange coincidence it turned out the premiere took place on the day Joe passed away.

Before it was known Joe had cancer, he got to see the film at a New York preview screening in May of last year. He described the documentary, “It really lets people see a true picture of what I am about and where I am coming from.”

Joe’s son Marvis has called the doc “touching and beautiful”.

There are contributions from the likes of George Foreman, Larry Holmes, Angelo Dundee, Bernard Hopkins as well as Joe’s friends and family. Top international factual film making magazine Realscreen has called it a ‘must see observational documentary’.

Director Mike Todd stated, “This project has been a long road for us. We never quite appreciated while filming, how important our project would turn out to be in terms of preserving Joe’s legacy.
“We had a lot of conversations with a lot of broadcasters about where the best home for the film was. Ultimately we felt that Hulu was the right place, where people could see the film in its most honest form. The fact they are making the doc their first ‘Documentary Month’ and are promoting it for Black History month, we felt was very much in tune with the story we tried to tell.”

The film has also been backed by the World Boxing Council who paid tribute to Joe Frazier at their annual convention which took place in Las Vegas in December, where the film was screened. WBC President Jose Sulaiman stated that, “We got involved in supporting this project because we felt it was an important film about Joe’s life that people needed to see. Not just boxing fans but everyone who is capable of being inspired by triumph over adversity. This film will help preserve Joe’s true legacy and gives us a unique understanding of who he was as a human being.”

The film is due to be released internationally this summer. More information can be found by visiting the website www.joefrazierfilm.com and facebook page www.facebook.com/joefrazierfilm

February 9th, 2012

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