Olympic Pride, American Prejudice

Amid the strained and turbulent atmosphere of a racially divided 1930's America, torn between boycotting Hitler's Olympics or participating in the Third Reich's grandest affair, this film follows 16 men and two women through their heroic turn at the summer Olympic Games in Berlin, 1936. Representing a country that considered them second-class citizens and competing in one that rolled out the red carpet despite an undercurrent of Aryan superiority and Anti-Semitism, these 18 athletes carried the weight of a race on their shoulders and stood tall in the middle of a political firestorm. They made the team, travelled to Berlin and did the unexpected with grace and dignity. Their presence on the world stage is a seminal precursor to the Civil Rights Movement. History forgot all except one. This is the story of the other 17.