New Video...Anabolic Network Exclusive interview with Chris Bell

[~Admin~]

Hey guys..we put up an injected today, but we ALSO put up an Anabolic Network exclusive interview. It's Anthony's interview with Chris Bell, the director of Bigger Stronger Faster.

It's below the main player, on the right, next to the injected library (not in the main player). It's really well done, so give it a look.

[shifty_git]

You utter legends! now ganna watch!

[ChuckLee]

Very very interesting.
Can't wait to see the movie!!!
LOL Anthony looks pretty ankward while speking to Chris

[Merc..]

GREAT interview ......


Merc.

[~Admin~]

Very very interesting.
Can't wait to see the movie!!!
LOL Anthony looks pretty ankward while speking to Chris

The producers of the actual movie said that it was the best interview so far. But that being said, the interview was on a Monday & Anthony left the hospital Saturday morning (Pneumonia and Fluid in his lungs). Although he was sweating and having difficulty breathing for the entire interview - I didn't think he looked awkward at all.

[Crest]

doesnt come across as having the greatest 'on screen manner'

[Merc..]

I think Anthony does very well in the interview and with the Injected vids...

Like Admin stated Anthony had pneumonia when that was shot ... He was really , really sick ...

I didnt think it looked awkward at all either .. I thought it was a very good interview ..

Merc.

[Merc..]

T.t.t

[Merc..]

From A-Robs blog ..


April 22, 2008

Part of my Chris Bell interview is up….


Filed under: Other — admin @ 2:56 pm
If you’re interested in this kind of thing, we just put up an Anabolic Network exclusive interview on the main page of steroid .com. It’s my interview with Chris Bell, the director of Bigger Stronger Faster.
It’s below the main player, on the right, next to the injected library (not in the main player). The production value really well done, so give it a look. For an example of something really poorly done, check out MD’s video interviews, then compare them to this one. Anyway, the producers of the actual movie said that it was the best interview so far. The only thing I wasn’t thrilled with was that the interview was on a Monday & I had left the hospital Saturday morning with Pneumonia and Fluid in my lungs. Unfortunately, the interview was on the second floor of the building we were in, and I was already heaving for breath by the time I got up there, and the fact that I couldn’t breathe wasn’t optimal for a coversation. Anyway, I did my best and I think I got a good interview out of him. We’ll put up the full one at a later date, closer to the movie.


http://robertsblog.com/2008/04/22/pa...terview-is-up/


Merc.

[Gears]

Awesome awesome interview. A-Rob is a very good listener, which is probably why he`s so educated. I just wish it was held in a more professional setting.... was that a t.v. in the background?

[SaSqUaDgE]

very nice interview great job

[200byjune]

ya i believe i saw in the interview once he fiished his story about his brother saidill tell u a story then went on abut somthin else. maybe it was edited out or maybe he tld him after. wich was it or did i misunderstand what he said?

[legobricks]

Great interview! Yes I think that arob did a good job with some very interested questions and responses. I also feel that Chris Bell explained the movie very well in regards to "sides" of the steroid world. Making a movie that sits in the middle of opinions is what he claims this movie is (as A-rob says as well) which is what will draw the attention of a lot of people (word spreads fast). Im actually glad this documentary was made and will go in theaters soon. It gives everyone a good outlook on how AAS ACTUALLY will effect oneself. I can not wait to see it! Hopefully we can get some good reviews on it and hopefully it will change the outlook of a lot of people!

Arob did look a little off key tho, possibly because he was sick and trying to look proffesional? Either way tho i think Arob is a great (steroidanchorman?) as he is very knowledgable and actually knows what he is doing. Great job!

[Schmidty]

Very very interesting.
Can't wait to see the movie!!!
LOL Anthony looks pretty ankward while speking to Chris

I was thinking the same exact thing...

[Schmidty]

I think Anthony does very well in the interview and with the Injected vids...

Like Admin stated Anthony had pneumonia when that was shot ... He was really , really sick ...

I didnt think it looked awkward at all either .. I thought it was a very good interview ..

Merc.

I can buy that, u do hear him cough at one point. I was just thinking he looked uncomfortable for sum reason

[Property of Steroid.com]

I was uncomfortable, actually. I had/have Pneumonia, and it makes it really difficult to do anything but lie down - which is unfortunately compounded by allergy season here. Even the injecteds kind of suck to do right now and I lose my breath about every 20 seconds and we need to stop taping.

Roughly 48 hours before that interview, I was breathing with tubes up my nose. so all things considered, I was happy with how it came out. It was really important to me and (I think) to you guys to get that interview, so I drove 3 hours to Dallas to do it, and gave it the best I could.

[legobricks]

Anyone who doesnt know you or know you had pnemonia wouldnt even be able to pick out that you werent your normal self. No worries A-rob, excellant job on the interview! Especially for having pnemonia and JUST getting out of the hospital! For driving 3 hours to Dallas, doing an interview, and getting it to us while STILL feeling like complete shit just goes to show how much dedication you put into all of this and ill be one to say THANK YOU! Your a HUGE help to this board and were lucky to have ya!

[MuscleScience]

I thought it was a really good interview, good points were brought up by both parties and from an outsider looking in, the interview didnt seem to come off biased to either side. Very professionally done. Cant wait for the next one....

[Merc..]

T.t.t

[Merc..]

[inky-e]

think Mr.Roberts did a fine job. Why do people feel the need to nitpick?

[MattUK666]

Am I missing something? I cant find it....lol

[Merc..]

Am I missing something? I cant find it....lol

click here

www.steroid.com

Than scroll down .. on the left handside- under the media player - you will see some of the past episodes ( of Injected vids ).. On the right handside you will see The Anabolic Network player click on that for [A-Robs] Chris Bell Interview...


Merc.

[MattUK666]

Great! Thankyou.

[Merc..]

Great! Thankyou.

[Merc..]

Tribeca '08: "Bigger, Stronger, Faster*"
Monday, April 28, 2008 | 10:57 AM

By Matt Singer

[For complete coverage of the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival, check out IFC's Tribeca page.]

On February 16, 2007, Sylvester Stallone was busted in Australia with 48 vials of the human growth hormone Jintropin. To some, this was a non-story; after all, Stallone was not "cheating" in the same way a professional athlete might be if he were caught with the same performance-enhancing drugs. Stallone is an actor, and he's not competing against anyone. According to his lawyer, he was using Jintropin under medical supervision.

But Stallone is also the man who plays Rocky Balboa and John Rambo — in fact, he was training to play Rambo for the first time in 20 years when the seizure took place. In "Rocky IV," murderous Russian boxer Ivan Drago is vilified for using steroids . On the other hand, Rocky trains the all-natural, old-fashioned way, with backbreaking labor. The message: Hard work and determination always triumphs over shortcuts. Hard to stomach when you know that the guy playing Rocky was probably getting some kind of liquid assistance with his training regiment of carrying enormous logs across great distances in the snow.

Christopher Bell's clear-eyed, impassioned documentary "Bigger, Stronger, Faster*" puts this preposterous hypocrisy front and center. Narrated throughout by Bell himself, it begins with the director's recollections of his youth, one spent idolizing hard-bodied '80s muscle man icons such as Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger and Hulk Hogan. Bell and his two brothers became so fixated on these Herculean figures that they put themselves on the training regimens these men publicly espoused. When they didn't see the same results, they turned to steroids. Though it's not fair to blame those men for the Bells' actions — I watched all those movies and wrestling matches and only took steroids when I had mono — it's not unfair to speculate that watching them is what first sparked his and many other young men's interest in bodybuilding. Bell's brothers still use performance enhancers, but they have a hard time admitting it to their loving parents (though, thanks to the siblings' collective desire for fame and stardom, they're incredibly comfortable discussing it with a movie camera).

Bell's approach is both micro and macro, chronicling his own family's steroid use and the strain it puts on the family's ethos (one that jives with that clean living over cheating one that was discussed earlier), while putting their struggles into a larger cultural context through interviews with noted physicians who've studied the effects of steroids and athletes whose lives have been touched by their impact. Though Bell himself considers steroid use by athletes to be unsavory, he's open-minded enough to discuss the drugs' positive medical benefits (an HIV-positive man speaks of how they give him a standard of life) as well as question a father who blames them for the death of his son.

Above all, what Bell portrays better than anything else is the mountain of lies buried beneath the controversy surrounding performance enhancers. He gets a professional bodybuilder and model to admit that his chiseled build is a direct result of the steroids he takes, not the dietary supplements that he pimps in magazine ads; a photographer later shows Bell how the "before" and "after" pictures in a lot of these advertisements can easily be manipulated using digital airbrushes. While Ronald Reagan was declaring a war on drugs, he was also publicly saluting actors and their on screen creations that had more to do with injections than squat thrusts.

That American myth that Reagan used Stallone and Schwarzenegger to prop up in the 1980s is one built on the idea that everyone is given equal opportunity to succeed, and that those who work hardest are the ones that ultimately accomplish the most. Telling people with aspirations of a perfectly sculpted body that you've accomplished things through nothing more than grit when you've really been given a chemical boost isn't just immoral; it is, as Bell points out, a competitive advantage. We like to imagine that our enemies — the Ivan Dragos of the world — are the ones sticking the needles into their butts. But consider this: Captain America, the flag-draped superhero, wasn't born with incredible talents, and he didn't earn his great strength through years of pumping iron. He was a scrawny weakling who was given a shot of "Super-Soldier Serum." Yes, even our nation's greatest comic book representation is a juicer. Coming to terms with that will ultimately be the true legacy of this so-called era. Bell's fine film may well be remembered as one of the steps on the road that got us there.

[Photo: "Bigger, Stronger, Faster*," Magnolia Pictures, 2008]

http://www.ifc.com/film/film-news/20...ronger-fas.php

[Merc..]

Tribeca Film Festival

http://www.tribecafilmfestival.org/f...er_Faster.html

[Merc..]

check this out .....


washingtonpost.com > Discussions Transcript
Discussing the Steroids Documentary

Chris Bell
Director, 'Bigger, Stronger, Faster'
Tuesday, April 29, 2008; 11:30 AM

In "Bigger, Stronger, Faster," filmmaker Chris Bell takes a closer look at steroid use in America. His subjects? His two brothers, both of whom idolized guys like Hulk Hogan and Sylvester Stallone as kids and, as adults, became part of the steroid subculture.

Bell was online Tuesday, April 29 at 11:30 a.m. ET to discuss the film and his observations about steroid use.

"Bigger, Stronger, Faster," which screened earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival, opens in New York and L.A. on May 30, and in Washington D.C. and other select cities on June 6.

A transcript follows.

____________________

Detroit, Mich: Hi Chris! What inspired you to do this documentary, did it have anything to do with your brothers?

Chris Bell: Absolutely. My two brothers were using steroids at the time that I started the documentary. I grew up in a culture of Hulk Hogan, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, were the heroes of the time. My brothers and I found out all our heroes took the steroids, so the question for me was, do you follow your heroes or do you follow the rules?

_______________________

Potomac, Md.: Do you think America will ever be able to come back from the "bigger stronger faster mentality?" For example, what is going to make people want to be smaller, weaker, slower even if it's a positive change?

Chris Bell: I see us moving in a profressive direction, I don't see us actually going backwards. I don't think being weaker is the answer either. I think it's about finding a balance where we can exist in a healthy manner without feeling like we need to be the best.



I think there's a lot of prsssur on kids today to excel and be number one, whether it's academics or sports or business or war. We're basically always chasing that bigger goal. We just need to put things in perspective. In my film I wanted to open the lines of communication about steroids so we could talk about it in an intellectual manner.

_______________________

Washington, D.C.: Had tickets to see your film in Dallas at the AFI festival so I'm glad to see it's coming here. Will it ever be sold as a DVD?

Chris Bell: The film will be released by Magonolia on May 30 in theaters, and the DVD will be out most likely in August or September. It will also feature over an hour of deleted scenes and director's commentary, and some really neat secrets in those DVD extras as well.

_______________________

Washington, D.C.: Just curious - but have you targeted this film towards college or high school athletes as a means of showing them the negative effects of steroid use in athletics? If so, how has the film and its message been received?

Thanks!

Chris Bell: The film isn't to show the negative effects of steroids to kids. The film is exploring the truth about steroids. I think a lot of times in society we tend to tell kids that things will kill them or destroy them without knowing the facts. The fact of the matter with steroids is we don't have enough information so therefore we can't even tell kids the truth about it. We need more research done.



On top of that, we have shown the film to a large group of high school kids. And the response was they all basically thanked us for not preaching to them and telling them the truth. I think it w as a very positive response. The kids felt like they understood why people were using steroids and what was going on with their own beds. And I think it's good for kids to know they should accept themselves for who they are.

_______________________

Rockville, Md.: I noticed on imdb that it says you wrote for "WWF." What was that job like?

Chris Bell: Basically the job of a WWE writers is to work with talent to help them develop their on-camera personas and what they are going to actually say on each individual show. So I got to work with guys like the Rock and John Cena. It wes a great experience. It helped me as a documentary filmmaker, just being able to work with other talent and other people, like subjects for a documentary.

_______________________

Washington, D.C.: Do you think that recent major sports records and achievements hold less weight than those of the past because of the possibility that performance enhancing drugs were involved?

Chris Bell: I get asked that a lot. My answer to it is that if the leagues and the sports organizations were not doing the proper testing and not having the proper policies we can't really prove what happened back then. What we could do right now is start with better testing and move forward from there. We could enforce these policies and basically label these athletes as rule breakers or cheaters, if you want to call them that, and those records would definitely hold less weight.



But if we were negligent in the past about what happened, we can't really put an asterisk next to their name. The other interesting thing is the fans are just as responsible as players and ownres. As fans, we feed that. We want to see more. That really feeds the athletes to go out and perform at a higher level.

_______________________

Washington, D.C.: In 1984 I remember returning to school for 11th grade and the football players in my grade went from merely athletic to having immense biceps and chests, plus the boasted ability of benchpressing 200, 300 and more lbs. It was as if overnight the core group of five or six players physically transformed into different people when they left junior varsity. I could not imagine someone gaining 40 or 50 lbs of muscle over the summer without steroids and when some started going bald in senior year, we couldn't stop speculating. Have you heard similar stories?

Chris Bell: Yes, absolutely. I think we hear stories like that all the time. Those are the red flags that should go up for parents, to know what the physucal limits of their children are, to know if they're using steroids. We should be able to recognize that.



I should say at that time also, that's when kids are growing the most. When you start lifting weight, there definitely is a large increase in muscle strength because you're on natural steroids. Your body is producing so much testosterone at that point. It's something to watch out for, but there are gains achievable when you're in high school, for sure.

_______________________

Washington, D.C.: May I ask what happened to your brothers? Are they still using steroids?

Chris Bell: My brothers basically are doing really well. My younger brother went off steroids and had another child, so they had their second kid. My older brother went to rehab to fix a lot of his other addiction problems and he is doing very well right now. I think the film for him is very therapeutic. As far as whether they are using steroids now, I don't really know and I don't really ask them.



It's a personal decision for them. I think we've exhausted that question in my film and in my family.


_______________________

Washington, D.C.: Do you have any other film or documentary projects on the horizon?

Chris Bell: Yes, I just signed with the Endeavor Agency and we have been working on a couple of different projects, nothing really set in stone. I am looking at both narrative and documentary films. I feel both kinds of media carry a lot of weight as long as you're interjecting your own personal views into it. I want to do films that are very socially relevant and I want to do stuff with a comedic twist to it. We're working on a couple of topics, things on obesity. Things that are fun and explore a lot of the similar themes as "Bigger, Stronger, Faster."

_______________________

Roseland, N.J.: Does your film explore issues related to the illegality of steroids? By which I mean, there are a lot of things you can do that are "bad" for you that you can do easily because they are legal, but the illegality of the drug adds a necessary level of deceit and subterfuge a person might not otherwise engage in.

Chris Bell: Yes, actually that's a very intelligent question. One of the questions we pose in the movie is why is it okay to get botox and liposuction? And in more similar cases, I could go under the knife, go under heavy anesthestia, have a doctor take a scalpel and cut open my bicep and place silicone in there to make my biceps bigger. But if I want to take a hormone that's made in your body naturally and inject that so I look better and feel better about myself, and is known to be relatively safe for adult males, I could go to jail for that.



We explore that in detail in the film.

_______________________

Chris Bell: I feel that this is a very important film. I think everyone from teenagers to athletes to parents, coaches, teachers, trainers should all go see "Bigger, Stronger, Faster" because we are a definitely a country afflicted by a body image crisis. And we definitely have a steroids issue in our culture. But the film explores a bigger issue going on in America about lying and cheating, so I think it's important for everyone to see the film.



Thanks for all your questions. I will be touring with the film, so check your local papers. I would love to answer any questions in person. We look forward to seeing you at the theaters on May 30 and in D.C. on June 6.

_______________________

Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...042800028.html



Merc.