A preview of the Clyde Best documentary will be screened to an audience at Cambridge Beaches on Thursday night.

Guests in attendance at the celebration of Bermuda’s football icon have an opportunity to sample Transforming the Beautiful Game, The Clyde Best Story, before its premiere in March next year.

The event is open to the public and tickets can be bought for $150 through the documentary website.

An exclusive panel discussion with Best, Patrick Horne, Ade Coker, Allen Hopkins and Tony Head is also scheduled. Best and Coker, a West Ham United Academy product, were the initial two black players to start a match for the Hammers in 1971.

The following year, Best, Coker and Clive Charles became the first three black players to be named together in the starting line-up of an English Football League side when they were selected for a match against First Division rivals Tottenham Hotspur.

Horne, former North American soccer league footballer, is a historian and author of Black Pioneers of the North American Soccer League.

Hopkins is the executive director of Black Players for Change, the advocacy group for black players in Major League Soccer. He has teamed up with Citizens Uprooting Racism in Bermuda, a non-governmental organisation of volunteers that works to identify and dismantle systemic racism on the island, for a greater discussion on racism in sport.

American actor Head is the documentary’s narrator and will be the moderator of the discussion.

While on Thursday night Clyde Best will be celebrated, on Friday morning event organisers are promising a powerful and uplifting community conversation.

The forum Levelling the Field: Racism in Sport — Past, Present, Future, will be held in Shoreline at Cambridge Beaches at 10.30am.

Best will be joined by local and international leaders in a dynamic conversation about the challenges and opportunities facing Bermuda’s youth today.

Organisers indicated that the gathering, which is free to the public, will be centred on the future of sport on the island. Also in focus is the role football continues to play in shaping the lives of young Bermudians and how the next generation can be supported through opportunity, visibility and hope.

“At a moment when Bermuda faces rising youth violence and deepening social division, this panel will explore not just the problem — but the path forward: through mentorship, courage, investment and the belief that sport still has the power to change lives,” said organisers of the event

Dan Egan, the executive producer of Best’s documentary, called on Bermudians to rise to the occasion.

“This is about impact, not just nostalgia,” Egan said.

“Clyde’s story is one of courage and possibility — and that story began in Bermuda. This is a moment for Bermuda to lead, for Bermuda to inspire and for Bermuda to shape what comes next.”