I talked to a fitness model named Christian Boeving, who was probably the top fitness model in the past 10 years for the company MuscleTech. Christian was basically…his contract ended and they would not redo his contract, and he was their top guy, because he was in this movie. They saw a little clip on CNN and were like, “You know what Christian, that’s it!” They’re not allowed to tell the truth. It’s like they know they’re taking all of these supplements and steroids, but they’re not allowed to say that. There is a big hypocrisy going on when a company like MuscleTech says they do not support the use of anabolic steroids and then they also sponsor the Mr. Olympia contest, which is not drug tested and we also know that Mr. Olympia is definitely on steroids. It’s a big hypocrisy going on that we can’t tell the truth in this country. You see an ad with a guy who is juiced out of his mind, but he’s selling supplements. Who are you kidding?
I was disappointed to see Gregg Valentino at the beginning of the trailer conveying the message to a mainstream public that his arms are the result of anabolic steroids when that is clearly not the case. I actually enjoyed Valentino’s appearance in the film; Valentino was very open about steroid use and his scenes were very entertaining and provided a good deal of comic relief. So while I enjoyed Valentino in the movie, not so much in the trailer!
America’s performance-enhancing appetite has never been bigger. And it’s not just in professional sports or Hollywood. From high school locker rooms to anti-aging clinics, our nation is embracing steroids and human growth hormones like never before, spurring a furious debate about the ethics of enhancement. Join Christopher Bell, who documented his brothers’ struggle to be “the best,” BALCO founder Victor Conte, Jon Romano and Mark Haskins in a provocative discussion about the pitfalls and promise of the asterisk era, and where we go from here. Moderated by Steroid Nation author Shaun Assael.
New Yorkers have really embraced the film; this was confirmed firsthand by Anthony Roberts who had the opportunity to see Bigger Faster Stronger for the second time witnessing a large crowd of bodybuilders at the screening. Several sports writers, bloggers, and movie critics have screened the film at Tribeca and have written mostly positive reviews.
If anyone had the opportunity to attend the panel discussion, please post your reactions to the event in the comments below.
Cinematical interviewed Christopher Bell, director of “Bigger Stronger Faster*” at the Tribeca Film Festival this week. Cinematical picks up on anti-intellectual theme that pervades discussion of anabolic steroids, particularly in Congress. Chris Bell discusses how politicians (in this case, Republican Senator John Sweeney) make decisions on steroid policy.
In the movie, [New York congressman] John E. Sweeney says one of the most retarded things I’ve heard. He says that Donald Hooten, whose son Taylor committed suicide and they blamed steroids, was more important than statistics or any of that stuff. As a congressman, how can you be more concerned with emotions than statistics? If you were going to go to war based on emotions, that would be insane. We’re kinda in that situation right now.
It seems that emotion-based or faith-based policy has triumphed over policy based on science and logic again and again in the past several years. As has been said before, this documentary is about much more than the steroids. The anti-intellectualism and anti-rationalism seen in the steroid debate is only a microcosm of tendencies that pervade our society. Scholars have written books on the dumbing down of our culture.
Filmmaker Christopher Bell interviewed his good friend Muscletech spokesperson Christian Boeving about anabolic steroids for the critically acclaimed documentary “Bigger Stronger Faster*”. Boeving spoke honestly about his use of anabolic steroids. When CNN aired excerpts from the documentary shortly after its screening at the Sundance Film Festival, Muscletech fired released the bodybuilding and fitness model from his contract.
Muscletech apparently has a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to steroids. You certainly can’t talk about steroids if you are sponsored by Muscletech. Muscletech allows you to publicly talk about quite a few things (like masturbating to Christina Lindley’s Maxim photo spread, making multiple references to Lindley’s ample breasts or alluding to Lindlay and microphone fellatio whileinterviewing Christina Lindley) without consequence but talking about steroids publicly crosses the line. Such a public admission of steroid use might indicate to consumers that the muscular physique of a sponsored bodybuilding athlete is not solely the result of Muscletech supplementation.
If you catch the Tribeca screening, I strongly encourage you to take the time to meet with director Christopher Bell and co-producers Tamsin Rawady and Alex Buono.
“Bigger Stronger Faster*” opens today for the New York City premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival for the first of four screenings at the festival.
Sat, Apr 26, 9:00PM
Tishman Auditorium at The New School
I finally had the opportunity to screen the steroid documentary Bigger Stronger Faster* at the AFI Dallas International Film Festival! This is a movie that I have waited over 15 months to see. During this time. I’ve talked to several friends who were interviewed for the film and I’ve had the chance to meet and talk to director Christopher Bell on a few occasions; I even interviewed Chris for MESO-Rx in advance of the world premiere of Bigger Stronger Faster*. As a result, my expectations were quite high for the film.
I was not disappointed as Bigger Stronger Faster* was beautifully done - well-written and well-produced by co-producers Tamsin Rawady and Alex Buono (who were at the screening along with Chris). It was well-received by the audience as well.
Chris Bell has an unassuming and non-confrontational inteview style and combined it with an amazing talent for asking the right questions. This was the key to the film as it allowed the participants to tell the steroid narrative in their own words without directorial editorializing.
I will write a more thoughtful and extensive review in the next few weeks. But I would like to briefly share a couple of thoughts about the documentary.
While this is a documentary that is very much about anabolic steroids, it is about much more. It is as if it uses the topic of steroids to explore larger issues in society. Producer Alex Buono admitted during the post-screening question and answer session that steroids were not a topic that particularly interested him; but Chris Bell’s story was compelling for reasons beyond steroids and that fascinated him.
The documentary reveals a very strong degree of anti-intellectualism that is unashamedly embraced by some participants in the steroid debate. I asked director Chris Bell about these issues after the screening. You may seen the live stream that was posted yesterday. If not, you can see Chris’ comments in the embedded youtube clip below.
I highly recommend this film to all our readers. It premieres at theatres in Los Angeles and New York on May 30, 2008 and at select theatres nationwide on June 6, 2008.
MESO-Rx is traveling to Dallas to review the steroid documentary and meet up with director Chris Bell. We will have a few live interviews available throughout the afternoon. Please follow me on Twitter to be notified immediately every time there is a live stream from the event. And if you’re in Dallas for the screening, send us a Tweet and meet MESO-Rx and the Bigger Stronger Faster guys afterwards.
Chris Bell told me via email yesterday that his film was sold to a theatrical distribution company with a public announcement coming on Friday. Today, Variety broke the story early by announcing that Magnolia Pictures (co-founded by Dallas Mavericks onwer Mark Cuban) has purchased the worldwide distribution rights to Christopher Bell’s “Bigger Stornger Faster*”, a steroid documentary that critical examines steroid use in society while the filmmaker looks at steroid use by his brothers.
Magnolia plans to release muscle docu later this year theatrically to be followed by play on HDNet. Magnolia and HDNet are part of Todd Wagner and Mark Cuban’s Wagner/Cuban Companies, which also include Landmark Theaters chain and 2929 Productions.
“I love this movie!” said Mark Cuban, owner of Magnolia, Landmark Theaters, HDNET, and the Dallas Mavericks, “It’s informative, fascinating and hysterical - all the things a movie about steroids should be. You can’t miss this one if you are a sports fan.”
“Bigger, Stronger, Faster,” which will inevitably be described as reminiscent of Michael Moore because the director, Chris Bell, has a strong and humorous voice and he’s out to explore nothing less than the American dream, through the lens of the bodybuilding craze that made he and his brothers take steroids like they were candy. Since we were full up at the inn already, we squeezed it in to the Forrest at 5pm on Friday, right up against the March into March.
, and included Chris Bell, John Romano of 
