The Hurdle

Australia, 1983

Film
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Episode of Series “Striving”.
Douglas Sam, Australia’s best middleweight boxer, had to overcome enormous psychological pressures at the Commonwealth Games of 1982 in Brisbane. Douglas is an Australian First Nations man, and many of his people felt that he should not compete in these games. He did compete and the news media made Douglas a favourite for a gold medal. This film traces his wins and his losses.

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Collection

In ACMI's collection

Credits

co-director

Dennis O'Rourke

Nick Torrens

producer

Nick Torrens

production company

Film Australia

Duration

00:25:20:00

Production places
Australia
Production dates
1983

Appears in

Striving

Group of items

Striving

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Collection metadata

ACMI Identifier

016359

Language

English

Subject categories

Aboriginal Australia → Aboriginal Australian athletes

Aboriginal Australia → Aboriginal Australians - Sports

Documentary

Documentary → Documentary films - Australia

Hobbies, Recreation & Sport → Boxing

Hobbies, Recreation & Sport → Commonwealth Games (12th : 1982 : Brisbane, Qld.)

People → Sam, Douglas

Short films

Short films → Short films - Australia

Sound/audio

Sound

Colour

Colour

Holdings

16mm film; Access Print (Section 1)

16mm film; Limited Access Print (Section 2)

Please note: this archive is an ongoing body of work. Sometimes the credit information (director, year etc) isn’t available so these fields may be left blank; we are progressively filling these in with further research.

Cite this work on Wikipedia

If you would like to cite this item, please use the following template: {{cite web |url=https://acmi.net.au/works/77940--the-hurdle-a/ |title=The Hurdle |author=Australian Centre for the Moving Image |access-date=23 April 2025 |publisher=Australian Centre for the Moving Image}}