Trailer for The Stand: How One Gesture Shook The World arrives

Human competitions have never been strangers to the political arena. As much as people would like to disagree, sports has always been a platform for people of color to not only show our amazing athleticism, but to fight for injustices all around the world.

In 1968, Olympics runners Tommie Smith and John Carlos, made history, by not only taking the gold and silver medal in the Olympics for running, but for consciously deciding to fight for equality while the rest of the world stood and watched. For the entire Star Spangled Banner, they held the Black Power fist in the air! The gesture would be talked about for decades to come, but very little is known about what led up to this moment in time some 52 years ago.

The Stand is directed and co-directed by Tom Ratcliff and Becky Paige of 1091 Media and will arrive on VOD August 4th.

It is one of the most iconic images of our time: two African-American medal winners at the 1968 Olympics standing in silent protest with heads bowed and fists raised as “The Star Spangled Banner” is played.  Fifty years later, that singular event remains deeply inspiring, controversial and even misunderstood as one of the most overtly political statement in the annals of sport. 

The Stand: How One Gesture Shook the World is a revealing exploration into the circumstances that led runners Tommie Smith and John Carlos to that historic moment at the Mexico City Games, mining the great personal risks they took and the subsequent fallout they endured. Through intimate interviews with the participants and witnesses involved in that moment, along with compelling images and archive, the film explores the 1968 Olympics human rights stand in the context of a critically important and volatile time for the U.S. Civil Rights Movement. 

While the film documents this lasting moment in American history, The Stand also remains faithful to what was, for athletes and millions of Olympic fans around the world, a riveting 200-meter footrace between the fastest runners of the day, young people in their athletic prime striving to be the best on one October day in Mexico City.

For more about the film follow the link: The Stand: How One Gesture Shook The World