Leon Gast was a great character. He passed away this week. He lived in Woodstock, loved music, made documentaries about The Grateful Dead, the Hell’s Angels, a movie on the life of Manny Pacquiao – in which I took part and spent a day being filmed by Gast in Las Vegas – and, of course, ‘When We Were Kings’, for which the documentary won an Academy Award. I always loved calling ‘Lefty’ and catching up with him. He was a free spirit. Now he has gone. Aged 85. Rest in peace after a life lived most fully. Documentary film director, producer, cinematographer, and editor
Here’s one of the pieces I did with him for Muhammad Ali’s 70th birthday.
Muhammad Ali receives 70th birthday present fit for a king
They are kings again. The party started on Saturday in Louisville, Kentucky, with special celebrations for Muhammad Ali, four days ahead of his 70th birthday, on Jan 17, 2012
Lonnie, Ali’s wife, had revealed that the former world heavyweight champion “is still like a big kid when it comes to presents”.
Among the gifts for the greatest sporting icon of the 20 century is a short documentary for Ali’s friends and family to watch, crafted together over the last few months by Leon Gast, the American documentary film director.
Gast is best-known for directingWhen We Were Kings, the 1995 documentary depicting ‘The Rumble In The Jungle’ between Ali and George Foreman in Zaire in 1974.
It won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. Almost four decades after it was filmed, and 17 years after it was released, the film continues to resonate with so many people.
“Lonnie asked me to put something together for Muhammad for his 70th birthday, and invited me down there, and I said of course I would,” Gast explained toTelegraph Sport.
“He touched my life like he did so many others. He sprinkled his genius on my work, and this is the least I could do for him. I’m really excited about seeing him.”
Gast spent three months around Ali in Zaire, and they were in touch for years afterwards.
“He had an aura. My God it was so strong. There was something really special about him. He made sense. When we flew to Kinshasa on the same flight, he said ‘Don’t get in my way out there’.”
“Yet when we got to Kinshasa, I went to his camp and he couldn’t have been friendlier. We sat down by the Congo river. We spoke for hours.
“He told me he’d be running at dawn by the river, where the sun came up and started telling me where to put the cameras. He’d started directing the film! He’d been thinking about it. He was special. He seemed to be always ‘on’.
“When we filmed Ali by the Congo, there was a golden tint about him. It was part of his aura. The way I see it is that he bestowed a part of his life to me and it helped my life.
“Gene Kilroy, one of his advisers, told me an almost Biblical story early on in Zaire. He said that when you touched the robe, magical things happen. I touched the robe of one of the greatest figures in history, or pretty much of the 20th century, a man who no one but the radicals were even listening to.
“In fact, even some in that movement who felt change was coming were concerned with this loudmouth shooting from the hip every time a camera or a pressman with a pen and a piece of paper was around him.
“But we would sit and he would literally rant about injustice. It poured out of him — but it made sense. And so many things he said were proved right.
“I’m not going to go so far as to say he was a prophet, but in that whole bulls*** movement he was involved in, the only two people who were a part of it and who I came to respect — who weren’t just there to enjoy the pretty girls — were Muhammad Ali, and the real deal, a guy whose name was Malcolm. Those two — Muhammad and Malcolm X — really stood out.
“With every bone in my body I believe Ali will go down as one of the seminal figures in American history. I was lucky to witness it, and it’s a delight that the film just seems to continue to resonate with so many people.
“It’s down to Ali. Pure inspiration. It’s just how he projects in the footage whenever I look at him.”
For the next four days, Ali is King again. But to so many, and certainly to Gast, he will be regal forever.
This story first appeared in The Daily Telegraph on Jan 14, 2012.