CNN, MAX

CITIZEN ASHE

Executive Producer

Trailer:

This feature-length documentary explores the enduring legacy of tennis champion and humanitarian Arthur Ashe. With insights from Ashe’s widow, Jeanne Moutousammy-Ashe and his brother Johnnie, as well as fellow tennis legends Billie Jean King and John McEnroe, the film traces Ashe’s personal evolution from sports legend to global activist. Growing up in the segregated South playing a sport dominated by whites, Ashe overcame prejudice by pursuing excellence on and off the court. As he accumulated his fame, he shed his seeming reticence and stood up for racial equality in the U.S. and anti-apartheid in South Africa, until his death from AIDS-related complications in 1993. His own words, and those closest to him, reveal Ashe’s quiet determination to “use what he had to do what he could.”