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Title: American Weightlifting (2013)
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Mike Burgener | ||
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Danny Camargo | ||
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Kevin Doherty | ||
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Paul Doherty | ||
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Greg Everett | ||
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Jim Schmitz | ||
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Bob Takano | ||
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John Thrush | ||
Ultra-independent - a one person production start to finish - this movie looks at the passion and dedication of American athletes and coaches in the Olympic sport of weightlifting. The sport is extremely popular internationally, but obscure and struggling in the US, where athletes and coaches must train as amateurs with virtually no support, yet compete professional international counterparts. It's not just the story of a sport, but of the human spirit and the struggles and incredible dedication and hope of a small community of people despite the odds against them. Written by Anonymous
I would like to begin by saying that I have nothing but the utmost respect for Greg Everett. The man is an amazing coach and has contributed greatly to the development of the sport of weightlifting in America. That being said, this isn't a particularly entertaining or informative movie. The issue here is that Greg is as skilled a documentarian as Ken Burns is a weightlifting coach. My greatest critique is that the movie is just boring. Essentially it is two hours of voice overs set to images of athletes practicing the snatch and clean and jerk.
The documentary fails to follow any sort of story or character development and does little to explain the historical or technical aspects of weightlifting to the uninformed viewer.
That being said, I do think there is some tremendous potential in the footage if it were to be recut by an experienced editor, perhaps with some background info added in and maybe follow a coach developing an athlete or follow an athlete working towards a goal. Perhaps the biggest hurdle Greg faces as a documentarian is that he is too closely involved in the subject matter to give an objective view to the viewer. I do understand that this film was made on less than a shoestring budget and I was more than happy to purchase the film in support of both Greg and weightlifting but perhaps with such limited resources a more limited debut would have been wise. If this were edited down to 30 or 40 minutes with the available content you could have a really cool little film that would lead to investment and maybe a better film in the future.
Good luck to both the Everetts and I wish you continued success in the future!