- Title: USA: Tribeca Festival film examines steroid use in the U.S
- Date: 30th April 2008
- Summary: NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (APRIL 25, 2008) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) CHRISTOPHER BELL, WRITER AND DIRECTOR, "BIGGER, STRONGER, FASTER", SAYING: "Everybody's looking for that edge and that advantage and so I don't think that that's ever going to go away. What I think is going to actually happen is, it's going to change from steroids to, you know, we've actually seen a shift from steroids to like human growth hormone because they can't detect that on a test. And then we're going to go into gene therapy where people are just manipulating their genes and there'll be no way to test for it. It's scary, it's scary that we feel the need to succeed so badly that we're going to take a drug to do it."
- Embargoed: 15th May 2008 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Usa
- Country: USA
- Topics: Sports
- Reuters ID: LVAEG59NH6PVEJ0W373X0064NOAG
- Story Text: The documentary "Bigger, Stronger, Faster", which premiered at New York's Tribeca Film Festival, investigates steroid use in the United States.
Filmmaker Christopher Bell chose his two brothers -- both of whom have used steroids --- as the main protagonists.
"The movie is not intended by any means to be a pro-steroid movie," said Bell, who in the film explores the steroid culture of winning in the U.S.
"When you look at a lot of things we've seen in the past, the steroid side-effects and different things have been greatly exaggerated. So if we put it out as an ethical question, that's what we really wanted to do with 'Bigger, Stronger Faster', is turn this into an ethical debate and basically start the debate, not finish it or answer any of the questions," explained Bell.
The film's style resembles that used by filmmakers like Michael Moore and Morgan Spurlock. Bell, like Moore and Spurlock, is not your typical leading men. But his engaging and informal approach on-camera, makes the film highly entertaining and accessible, whilst also dealing objectively with a potentially thorny issue.
Bell said that he chose his brothers as central characters in the film because he knew that they would speak honestly about their steroid use. He said though, that the professional athletes he interviewed often felt attacked when asked about steroids.
"When talking to Carl Lewis and Ben Johnson and Floyd Landis and these guys, they definitely have, you know, a sort of feeling that you're coming in and you're trying to attack them or trying to find out some information," he said.
Bell's heroes when he was growing were muscle-men like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Hulk Hogan. But he says that he realizes now that this was misplaced admiration and that his father is should have been his hero.
"It's scary, it's scary that we feel the need to succeed so badly that we're going to take a drug to do it," said Bell.
The Tribeca Film Festival began April 23rd and will wrap up on May 4th. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None