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Salute to get a UK cinema release

It’s a 2008 documentary but Salute has been sold to Arrow Films for an imminent UK theatrical release because of its relevance to the Olympic Games, which kick off in London on July 27.

Salute is about a very symbolic event in the history of African-America civil rights and the part played in that event by champion Australian sprinter Peter Norman.

It was in the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City that Tommie Smith won the 200 metres, Norman came second and John Carlos came third – and all hell broke loose in sporting circles when the two Americans raised their fists in support of black power after accepting their medals.

What happened on the podium that day was highly controversial because many saw it as politicising the Olympics and all three sprinters paid the price, including Norman, who made it clear he supported his fellow runners. Norman died in 2006 and never ran for his country again.

It is understood that Smith will be in London to support the release of the film, the world rights of which are owned by Sydney-based sales agent Odin’s Eye Entertainment.

Salute was written and directed by Norman’s nephew Matt Norman, who has a strong interest in documentaries about social justice.

One of the projects he has in development is about Schapelle Corby, who has been imprisoned in Bali since being found guilty of drug charges. Norman says he would stake his career on the fact that she is innocent.

  1. Maybe Norman will make a film about Ms. Corby that avoids the gossip and innuendo that marred Janine Hoskings’ “Ganja Queen/The Hidden Truth.” True, it may be hard to reproduce the riveting and heartbreaking live footage of Ms. Corby’s show trial which Hoskings’ film concluded with. However, the earlier film barely touched on the phenomenal miscarriage of justice leading up to that trial, and did not illuminate at all the massive corruption in Indonesia’s notorious judicial system. There is certainly room for another film. I left Hoskings’ film totally convinced of Corby’s innocence; perhaps this is because as an American I was not subjected, as were Australians, to prejudicial round-the-clock press coverage that tends to make for a trial-by-media before a verdict is even reached. Let’s hope Norman can accomplish what Hoskings did not. Will he get the cooperation that Hoskings did, since the Corbys reportedly felt burned badly by the earlier film’s innuendo and guilt-by-association tabloid style? They may be justifiably wary. Could another film backfire and keep her in that hell hole Kerobokan Prison even longer? Maybe. There are many delicate issues involved. But here’s hoping if he considers all this and decides to go ahead with it, he pulls no punches and brings out into the open what really happened to her in Indonesia, what happened in the airports she passed through on the night of her fateful trip to Bali, and the shameful behavior of the press following her conviction. The public should be utterly outraged at what happened to Ms. Corby, who continues to be referred to in the press as “drug dealer Schapelle Corby,” despite her never having received a fair investigation or fair trial, and the massive, overwhelming reasonable doubt as to her guilt. She is a symbol of the U.S.-led War on Drugs being turned into a profitable witch hunt for investment-hungry, fanatical pseudo-Democracies like Indonesia.

  2. Dear Michael,

    Firstly thank you for showing your understanding of the real facts of this case. It’s nice to know that you prepared your response accurately. I can say without any doubt that I am not holding back any punches. I am doing this person justice by proving the actual case is not a case at all. I’m doing that by showing the evidence. As IF reported. I will stake my career on this and will not be doing it to sensationalise my own career. I have one objective and that is to see justice and to have Schapelle brought home. I do have the evidence, I do have the guts to go all the way and I don’t have any influence from outside sources to tell a story “THEY” want me to tell. I am also making this film not to make money as that will go to charity. I expect everyone to watch it because the evidence can’t be made up. I’m dissapointed that other films haven’t grabbed the story by the balls, turned it upside down and went head to head with the media, the indonesian human rights abuses, the fraud committed by the Federal Police and especially the disgusting lies and cover up of our own government. No stone left unturned. That I will guarantee.

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