Lionel

In 1968 a young aboriginal boxer with a charming smile punched his way to history when he stopped Fighting Harada in Japan over fifteen rounds.

He was the undisputed bantamweight champion of the world. He was the first black sporting hero. He was Australia's first boxer with a world crown. He was Lionel Rose and two hundred and fifty thousand people hit the streets of Melbourne to welcome him back.

Lionel Rose became a symbolic figure in the interracial politics of the times. He won his world title just a few months after the referendum, which gave the Australian Government new powers to advance Aboriginal rights.

Over the next few years he married his childhood sweetheart in a blaze of publicity, defended his crown, spent his money on his family, gambling, drugs and low life companionship. Four years later Lionel Rose lost his title, his marriage broke up, and he tangled with the law, did time, and briefly became a country music star. Today he lives with his family in Gippsland and is a legend in the boxing world.

Combining a selection of remarkable archival and present day footage, the story of Lionel Rose is driven by interviews and the use of voice over from Lionel. Archive includes the young Lionel training, his world title fights, his homecoming to a hero's welcome, and news coverage of his life story, his marriage and his subsequent fall from fame. A series of stills portrays his childhood on the famous Jackson's Track, one of the few aboriginal communities to elude government intervention during that era.

The film explores how Lionel became a mythic sporting figure and his struggle with the dimensions of that myth in his life. It captures the image of 'Lionel the man' and 'Lionel the hero', how he reconciles his past with the present. We interrogate the notion of him as a heroic individual belting someone man-to-man against his relationship to, and love of family and friends - the reluctant hero and role model to many of his family, friends and the aboriginal community who have all stuck by him, even through the hard times. LIONEL is a film that will challenge our preconceptions as it weaves an intricate and unflinchingly honest portrayal of a complex human being. Lionel's imperfections may be larger than life - but so is his heart.