Battling Siki film entitled Return To Your Corner is a Smash Hit

Ashley Morrison`s film about Africa`s first ever World Boxing Champion, Battling Siki from Senegal. who aged twenty -five, defeated ”Orchid Kid” Georges Carpentier for the light heavyweight championship, controversially lost it six months later and was murdered on a New York Street three years later, has captured the imagination of movie buffs.

Return To Your Corner has already been a Selection in thirty two Film Festivals and has won twelve major awards. It is now available on Amazon Channel and overnight Flix Fling and Hoopla have also included it on their channels. More to come. Watch this space.

Ashley said: ”It did really well on the film festival circuit. At the Harlem International Film Festival in New York, it won Best Documentary and the Barcelona Sports Film Festival and the Garland of Honor at the Federation Internationale cinema/Television Sportifs in Milan, Italy and there are three or four film distributors wanting to act on my behalf in the United States.

”The feedback I`ve had from people and what they`ve liked, is that we haven`t shied away from the obvious racism that Siki suffered during his career. We were very honest about that and I think that shows the resilience of the man. He was clearly a smart guy and used it to his advantage in terms of the way his took the mickey out of the people doing it to him.

”Here was a man who wasn`t going to be put down. He just kept moving forwards. You just have to respect him and this was a very, very special man. The reason I made the film was that sadly, too many people in Africa don`t know who he is because he`s in the record books as being French.

”How do I remember him? As a very principled man. Throughout his life, he stood up for what he believed in, and I`ve always liked a person who sticks their head above the parapet, is prepared to stand up and be counted. A lot of what he did, was way ahead of his time. You had to be a brave man to be doing that as a black man.”

So, if he was here now, what do you think he`d make of what you made of him? Ashley replied: ”Well I hope he`d be proud and pleased that I`ve tried to highlight his achievments. I think he`d almost be a bit embarrassed by it, because despite all the bluff and bluster, I think he was quite a humble guy.”