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Leon Gast is an American documentary film director, producer, cinematographer, and editor. His documentary When We Were Kings depicting the iconic heavyweight boxing match termed The Rumble in the Jungle between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman won the 1996Academy Award for Documentary Feature and the Independent Spirit Award. Gast co-directed the 1977 documentary The Grateful Dead Movie with guitarist Jerry Garcia. The film captured the band's October 1974 five-night performance at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco. Gast also co-directed the 1983 film Hell's Angels Forever that was about the notorious motorcycle club, Hells Angels. The Angels found out Gast put material in the documentary that they didn’t want in there. Gast protests that the Angels tracked him down and beat him up. Gast has also produced works on B.B. King and Celia Cruz.

Early Life

A native of Jersey City, New Jersey, Gast studied dramatic arts at Columbia University, and in that same period worked the television series High Adventure with writer and broadcaster Lowell Thomas. Gast is also known for his still photography which has appeared in such magazines as Vogue, Esquire, and Harper's Bazaar.

Kinshasa

Leon Gast is most known for his documentary, When We Were Kings, which won him an Academy Award for Documentary Feature. This documentary is about the fight, “The Rumble in the Jungle”, between the boxers Muhammad Ali and George Foreman. This fight saw Muhammad Ali defeat George Foreman in the fight that saw these two fighters split $10 million between the two of them. Gast wasn’t originally supposed to film this documentary. Gast went to Kinshasa and was still a photographer who had one documentary which was on Latin music. Gast was hired to create a documentary about a three-day music festival that was happening in Kinshasa when the fight was happening. The Zaire’s ruler declared the concert free of charge days before it was supposed to happen. This was problematic because funds for the documentary were supposed to come directly from the proceeds of the festival. Five days before the scheduled fight, Foreman acquired a bad cut above one of his eyes and the fight was pushed back six weeks. Gast turned his attention to the fight and centered the documentary on Muhammad Ali.

When We Were Kings

When Gast returned from Kinshasa, he had 300,000 feet of film. Initially Gast didn’t have the money to finish the documentary, so he paid the bills by making documentaries on the Grateful Dead and the Hell’s Angels. In 1989, Gasts’ former lawyer, David Sonenberg, helped Gast out by putting up almost $1 million to finish the project. The film was first featured at the 1996 Sundance Film festival, which he won an award at for the documentary, and was eventually premiered at Radio City Music Hall. Gast spent close to two decades on “When We Were Kings”. This documentary was focused towards the comeback of Ali who was forced into exile after he objected to a Vietnam Draft. When We Were Kings has received strongly positive critical reaction. The documentary highlighted an important time in sports. Susan Ryan, who is a Cineaste reviewer, said “this entertaining documentary shows the boxer at one of the most celebrated moments in his career, dancing around the press, and preaching black pride with the same skill that he once used dancing around the ring”.

Golden Door International Film Festival

Leon Gast has also been awarded with the lifetime achievement award at the Golden Door International Film Festival in 2012. Gast is believed to be the only native Jersey City resident to have won an Oscar. Jed Dimatteo presented the award to Gast, who is also a Jersey City Social historian and publisher of the Jedsey Journal newsletter. Dimatteo was involved in planning the festival and brought up Gast’s name after he rediscovered Gast’s work.

Other Works

Gast's 2010 project is a documentary entitled Smash His Camera, a film about paparazzi photographer Ron Galella. The film won “Best Director” of a documentary at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. Gast directed his second documentary on a boxing legend, Manny, with Ryan Moore. It focuses on the boxing career of Manny Pacquiao, detailing his rise from poverty to the very top of the boxing world and now congressman in the Philippines.

Filmography:

• Our Latin Thing (1972)

• Celia Cruz and the Fania Allstars in Africa (1974)

• The Grateful Dead Movie (1974)

• B.B. King – Sweet 16 (1974)

• Hells Angels Forever (1983)

• When We Were Kings (1996)

• One Love (2003)

• Soul Power (2008)

• Smash His Camera (2010)

• The Trials of Muhammad Ali (2013)

• Manny (2014)

Awards:

• Special Jury Recognition, Sundance Film Festival (1996 – When We Were Kings)

• Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature (1997 – When We Were Kings)

• Independent Spirit Truer than Fiction Award (1997 – When We Were Kings)

• National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Non-Fiction Film (1997 - When We Were Kings)

• Sundance Film Festival Directing Award: U.S. Documentary (2010 – Smash His Camera)

• News & Documentary Emmy Award for Outstanding Historical Programming (2015 – Independent Lens)

External links

• Zjz4/sandbox at IMDb
• It Was Our Thing, Our Latin Thing: An Interview with Leon Gast
• http://www.philstar.com/thedeanscorner/articlescontent.aspx?articleId=694735&publicationSubCategoryId=69

Category:Documentary film directors Category:Living people Category:People from Jersey City, New Jersey Category:Directors of Best Documentary Feature Academy Award winners