Three things to know about The Color of Victory

As the Paris 2024 Olympic Games approach quickly, TFX invites you to relive a moment in sporting history with The Color of Victory broadcast this evening.

In 2016, the director Stephen Hopkins stages the story of Jesse Owens, four-time Olympic athletics champion at the Berlin Games held in 1936 under Hitler's gaze in this biopic broadcast tonight from 8:30 p.m. on the TFX channel. A moment of history with a capital H.

A biopic about a legend

His name is Jesse Owens. Born on September 12, 1913, this African-American athlete, the first internationally renowned black sportsman, made history at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. When in the space of a few days, he won no fewer than four gold medals – 100 meters, 200 meters, 4 x 100 meters – under Hitler's gaze.

The color of victory pays tribute to him by focusing on two episodes of his life: his entry into Ohio University in 1934 and his feat in Berlin. Sometimes privileging legend over truth. Thus, despite his fury at seeing a black athlete triumph, Hiltler never refused to shake Owens' hand, as can be seen here. In his memoirs, the athlete explained that far from snubbing him, Hitler had waved to him as he passed in front of his dressing room.

An all-terrain director

Stephen Hopkins was responsible for the realization of this Color of victoryBorn in Jamaica, this Australian became known in 1989 with his second feature film Freddy 5: The Nightmare Child before building a very eclectic filmography between action (Blown away), science fiction (Lost in space), polar (Suspicionthe remake of Jail), fantastic (The punishments), biopic (I, Peter Sellers) and several appearances on TV, including the pilot and several episodes of season 1 of 24 hours chrono. The color of victory marked his return to the big screen, 9 years later The punishments with Hillary Swank.

A second choice of the highest order

To play Owens, Stephen Hopkins had first considered the British John Boyega, revealed a few years earlier by the brilliant Attack the block. But he declined with a good excuse: he had been hired to play Finn in The force awakensepisode VII of Star Wars. And after a long search around the world, it is finally the Canadian Stephan James who was chosen to play Owens, helped by the wise advice of the athlete's daughters and granddaughters and solid training under an athletics coach to appropriate his unique style. Before that, he had played in 2014 in Selma by Ava DuVernay, a story of a major episode in the life of Martin Luther King. Since then, he has been one of the heroes of If Beale Street Could Talkdirected by Barry Jenkins (Moonlight), and adaptation of a novel by James Baldwin.

The Color of Victory is to be discovered on TFX, from 8:30 p.m. this evening.