CLEMENTE, the emotional documentary about Pittsburgh Pirate’s great baseball icon, Roberto Clemente, will hit theaters September 12, 2025, three days before Major League Baseball’s Official Roberto Clemente Day.
The doc, presented by Vinegar Hill and mtuckman media, is directed by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker David Altrogge.
Altrogge and former minor league player, former New York Yankees broadcaster and philanthropist Roberto Clemente Jr., who both live in Pittsburgh, joined SportsJam with Doug Doyle to talk about the film that already received several awards.
CLEMENTE is told through stunning archival footage, never-before-heard recordings, and unprecedented interviews. The film reveals the story of a man who lived by his own uncompromising code. A double outsider—too Black for white America and too Latino for Black America—Clemente refused to stay silent in the face of racism and injustice.
David Altrogge says he didn't know much about the personal side of Roberto Clemente until he started working on the project in 2019.
"One of the great joys of this project was learning the story as I was making the film, coming across these never-heard-before recordings and finding these lost Clemente home movies was just so incredible. I learned he was a three-dimensional person. He wasn't just a great ball player. He wasn't just a great humanitarian. He was so much more than all that. I think one of the best surprises for me was learning about these moments of kindness and empathy off the field that were done in secret."
Robert Clemente Jr. is one of Roberto and Vera Clemente's three sons. Roberto Jr. was extremely proud of the work Altrogge put into the doc.
"I truly believe that the resilience of David and really making sure that he got in front of us, after interviewing mom, mom's last interview, and being able to continue for all these years to complete this project was amazing. I believe it's a great call to action for all of us to become citizens and it shows. I can't wait for everyone to go out and watch it."
The doc is dedicated to Vera Clemente who died in 2019.
"You know mom when she met dad she was working at a bank and very smart. That trait really helped her and helped dad in everything he did. After dad's tragic death, mom at 30 years old with three young boys and three weeks after the accident she got the first meeting done to complete his mission and his dream of having a sports city for kids in Puerto Rico. She dedicated her whole life. She never remarried. It's something we are amazing and proud of."
Roberto Clemente was a celebrated Hall of Fame baseball player who tragically died in an airplane crash on December 31, 1972. At the time of his death, he was engaged in a humanitarian mission aimed at delivering aid to Nicaragua, which had recently experienced a devastating earthquake.
Roberto Jr. was only ten years old at the time. He says so many fans have told him how they were impacted by Clemente's death at the age of 38.
"There's always a connection when people tell me the story. They remember where they were when they heard the news. They always kind of correlate and say the same thing happened when JFK was killed. A lot of parents say they cried for the first time. It's truly amazing the connection and how people get so emotional. They had a personal relationship with him."
One of the beautiful aspects of CLEMENTE is the use of animation in the film to tell many of the stories. David Altrogge mixes in those animated scenes brilliantly.
"It was choice made out of necessity. There are a lot of sequences in the film that are animated. We had a wonderful team, Tandem Media, a husband and wife couple do the animation all by hand which was just so lovely. There were all these moments in Clemente's life that we wanted to include in the film, but there weren't any photographs or film footage of so we had to get creative."
The doc features actors Rita Moreno and Michael Keaton, New York Mets star Francisco Lindor and award-winning filmmaker Richard Linklater, broadcaster Bob Costas, author David Maraniss, friend Luis Mayoral and Talkin' 21 podcaster Danny Torres and many others.
Roberto was a two-time World Series champion (1960 and 1971). He was MLB's MVP in 1966 and collected exactly 3,000 hits before his death in 1972.
Many of Clemente's teammates were also featured in the doc, including Roberto's best friend and roomate, All-Star catcher Manny Sanguillen.
Sanguillen, who was inducted into the Pirates HOF last season, was the first person interviewed for CLEMENTE. Roberto Jr. says the bond between the younger Panamanian catcher and the veteran Puerto Rican right fielder was special.
"Manny and I are still very close. When Manny came up it was a mutual thing because dad really felt alone even though he was established as a Major Leaguer and talked to players from some of the other teams, but to have someone who became a little brother for him and help take care of him on and off the field, that was a great relationship. He needed someone to speak Spanish and be able to really spend time with him. Manny is one of those guys that's faith-based lifestyle was something that was really good for dad as well."
Clemente is widely credited for opening the door for many Latinos in MLB.
Despite being a great ballplayer, Roberto never got total respect from the media because of language and racial barriers. "The Great One" always spoke his mind and pushed for all ballplayers to be treated the same. The doc states that Latinos make up 30 percent of MLB rosters in 2025. During Roberto's playing days, that number was only at five percent.
CLEMENTE: A VINEGAR HILL Production in association with VANTAGE PICTURES and UNINTERRUPTED.
Directed By David Altrogge
Produced By: Mike Blizzard, John Bennett Scanlon, Mary Sabol, Andrew Calvetti, Sarah Altrogge, Jocelyn Hartnett, Keith Ayers, Stephen Turselli; Associate Producers, Luis Mayoral, Matt Paré and Jackson New-Smith
Executive Produced By
Roberto Clemente, Jr., Luis Roberto Clemente, Roberto Enrique Clemente, Richard Linklater, LeBron James, Maverick Carter, Duane Rieder, Jamal Henderson, Philip Byron, Steve Burman, Laura Heberton, Jim Evans, Brad Ragland; co-executive produced by Matthew Rissmiller
You can SEE the entire SportsJam with Doug Doyle with Roberto Clemente Jr. and David Altrogge below.
