Golden Gloves (1961)

• 77%
• 1961
• Documentary
• Gilles Groulx

The film opens with shots of boxers practicing while the narrator reads the rules of the annual Golden Gloves tournament. The tournament is Canada's elite amateur boxing competition and a win is required to enter the professional circuit and could even lead to the Olympic Games. Focusing on three men from Montreal aspiring to win the championship: Ronald and Arthur Jones, two unemployed English-speaking black men recently arrived from the United States and from a working-class family, and George Thibault, a French Canadian who works as a waiter in a bar. Each of them train in their own unique way; Jones in a yard in St. Henri and Thibault in a park. The young men talk about what drew them to this sport and their ambitions to escape poverty and obscurity by way of becoming a famous athlete.