The American documentarian and playwright and winner of the 2017 Oscar for the best documentary with ICARUS, Bryan Fogel, will take part in MIA DOC for a conversation.
Bryan Fogel debuts in Hollywood as an actor and stand-up comedian. In collaboration with Sam Wolfson he has developed, written and interpreted Jewtopia, an off-Broadway theatrical comedy about the love life of two young men looking for Jewish women. On August 4, 2016, his Oscar awarded documentary ICARUS was released on Netflix.
The story of Bryan Fogel and his documentary ICARUS is unbelievable and has involved many more people than one could imagine. Everything starts in 2014: Fogel has been a cycling enthusiast since he was a child and his hero, until the previous year, has been the cyclist Lance Armstrong, winner of the Tour de France from 1998 to 2005. In 2013 Armstrong lost every previously won title due to doping.
Fogel was mainly impressed by a particular fact: Armstrong was a hero at the time he was undergoing dozens of doping tests every day. How was it possible that he never tested positive? To find out he made a decision: participating to the Haute Route, the most difficult amateur cycling competition, using various doping substances to see how and how much they would improve his performance and find out how to falsify the tests.
At first to help the documentary maker there was Dan Catlin, the founder of the first UCLA Olympic testing laboratory. However, after a few weeks Catlin retired because of a conflict of interest. At this point the Russian scientist Grigory Radchenkov, director of the Russian anti-doping laboratory, enters the scene. After a year and a half of preparation Fogel takes part in the race, realizing that the biggest change is in his ability to recover: while the year before he had to make a long rehabilitation path to recover, at the end of the race he even declares to be ready for another week of competition.
The story seems to be over, but it reopens on November 9, 2015: an investigation carried out by the WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) confirms the existence of a state program of doping carried out by Russia, in which Radchenkov himself participated: the scandal threatens to exclude Russia from the 2016 Rio Games. In one of the many Skype conversations between the two, the scientist fears for his life: to help his friend Fogel buy him a ticket to the United States. At this point the documentary and reality begin to merge and change places: Fogel no longer makes a documentary, but becomes a reporter.
The result is an almost surreal tale, a conspiracy involving Russia, the KGB and Putin himself. Grigory Radchenkov has carried out the most effective doping program in history, and he has the proof of it. It is such a shocking discovery that it is brought to the New York Times. On May 12, 2016, the whole story was published in the newspapers. The repercussions are very strong: Russia is excluded from the 2018 South Korean Winter Olympics, the heaviest sanction ever imposed by the Olympic Committee on a nation; Radchenkov’s life is also at risk in America, and he is entrusted to the witness protection program. Still today there is no information about him.
Fogel reported a much bigger story than he expected. And as he explained in various interviews, he could have gone to the Olympic Committee or Russia at any time and been paid for his silence. As an alternative, he could have been afraid for his safety and pull himself out. In the end, he decided to move forward for all the clean athletes in the world.
