Citizen Ashe

Directors Rex Miller and Sam Pollard explore the enduring legacy of tennis legend and humanitarian Arthur Ashe in Citizen Ashe, an elegant and poignant feature documentary. Both character study and sociological inquiry, the film charts Ashe’s personal evolution into a global activist by contextualizing his achievements as a tennis superstar -- Wimbledon, U.S. Open, and Australian Open champion and the first black player to be selected for the U.S. Davis Cup team – against a tumultuous backdrop that included the civil rights movement, South African apartheid, and the AIDS epidemic. Ashe’s widow, brother, as well as friends from his childhood in Richmond to his Grand Slam tournament playing and coaching days, describe the key events that shaped his quiet determination to “use what he had to do what he could.”