From Saturday you can watch a five-part documentary about Jumbo-Visma’s miracle year on Amazon Prime. It is just one of many documentaries in which a reporting crew follows a sports team “like a fly on the wall”. The Sporza Daily podcast explains the success of these types of series, but also examines how authentic they are.
The success of sports documentaries
“Sunderland ’til I die” and “Formula 1: Drive to Survive” set the (international) tone about five years ago. Since then, sports documentaries that give fans a look behind the scenes have been springing up like mushrooms. About tennis, football, the race, …
In the latter category, starting tomorrow you can watch “All-in: The Trilogy”, which follows an entire year of Jumbo-Visma in its successful hunt for victory in the three major tours.
“Sport is emotion and drama and that is nice to portray,” says Tijl Verstraeten, who helped create The Wolfpack about the Quick-Step team.
“But nowadays athletes are no longer as accessible as they used to be. There is now a whole army of communications people to protect the athlete. While in the past, as a journalist, you could call someone and have a coffee at his or her home a day later.”
“It is a way to portray your team in a controlled manner,” adds Gilles Simonet, who, among other things, made the documentary Allez l’Union.
Related:
“Openness creates sympathy”
But how “controlled” is the image we see? How authentic?
“You have to show how it really works,” says Jasper Saeijs, marketing manager of Visma-Lease a Bike, now Jumbo-Visma.
“That is only possible if you as a camera crew can be completely on top of it. So you get to see the conversation between Van Aert and Vingegaard on the bus, after Lafay’s victory in San Sebastian. This way you see what really happens. “
If teams want to leave something out, you try to convince them why it should be included.
Yet “all access” does not mean the same as “bring it on”, as Tijl Verstraeten also knows. “Documentarians who claim they can do 100% of what they want are liars.”
“For example, the Jumbo documentary does not show the conversation in the Vuelta between Merijn Zeeman and the three leaders (Kuss, Vingegaard and Roglic). That is something that every documentary maker is confronted with.”
“The teams often have the last word,” says Simonet. “But you still try to work as independently as possible.”
“If they say: this or that has to be removed, then you try to convince them why they should leave it in.”
“Because true openness also creates sympathy. Especially in cycling, with its doping history. By also showing the bad moments, you show: we have nothing to hide.”
The sports documentary behind the scenes: how authentic is the image we get?
All-in: The Trilogy is the new documentary from Team Visma-Lease a Bike. You will experience the season in which the Dutch cycling team won the three Grand Tours like a fly on the wall. Those types of documentaries, which give you a look behind the scenes at a sports club, are gaining popularity. But how exactly does such a documentary come about? Marketing manager at Visma-Lease a Bike, Jasper Saeijs, editor-in-chief Tijl Verstraeten and TV producer Gilles Simonet explain.
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2024-03-15 16:16:02
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