Salute is a documentary film written, directed and produced by Matt Norman. It provides an insight into the 1968 Mexico Olympics, specifically one incident in particular which saw two US athletes, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, give the black power salute from the victory dias after the 200 metres final.

What is less known about the incident is that the third man on the dias was a white Australian, Peter Norman.

Norman showed support of Smith and Carlos by donning, on his way to the podium, an "Olympic Project for Human Rights" (OPHR) badge. It was also Norman who suggested that Smith and Carlos share the black gloves used in their salute, after Carlos had left his gloves in the Olympic Village. This is the reason for Tommie Smith raising his right fist, while John Carlos raised his left.

Asked about his support of Smith and Carlos' cause by the world's press, Norman said he opposed his country's government's White Australia policy.

The movie Salute debuted at the Sydney Film Festival on the 8th of June 2008. It was released Australia-wide on 2008-07-17 with the rest of the world to follow.

Background

While there had been attempts by American filmmakers to put together a piece on the event, they all lacked one major ingredient: Peter Norman. As a result, Matt Norman realised that the full story of his famous uncle had never been told. He began filming Salute at the end of 2002. With no budget, no funding and no help, he went about making a film that he hoped would get picked up by a local film festival.

Instead, "Salute" is now considered one of the most ambitious and most expensive Documentary films ever made in Australia. With the help of the FFC (Film Finance Corporation) and his local funding body Film Victoria, Norman raised close to two million dollars to help with the post production of the film. In October 2006, Peter Norman died tragically of a heart attack. Matt Norman's life was turned up-side-down when his film that was to honor his uncle would now be regarded as a memory of his uncle and the stance he took at the 1968 Mexico City Olympic Games.

In 2008, Andrew Mackie and Richard Payton of Transmission films were signed on as Australian distributors and later brought on board Paramount Pictures Australia to release the film nationally in cinemas throughout his native country.

Future

Matt Norman is now working on 1968, a dramatised version of the event. Norman is currently speaking with Hollywood to find stars to portray Tommie Smith, John Carlos and Peter Norman. With one of Australia's leading writers attached to write the screenplay (David Williamson), this will be a very ambitious film project to follow up on the success of Salute.

Cast

• Peter Norman as himself
• Tommie Smith as himself
• John Carlos as himself

Notes

External links

• SALUTE