The Armstrong Lie – the documentary
A documentary chronicling sports legend Lance Armstrong's improbable rise and ultimate fall from grace takes the spectators back to the Armstrong cycling era when he dominated this discipline with his impeccable performances at the Tour de France.
“ALL you have to answer is, yes or no,” said Oprah Winfrey on her show when she interviewed Lance Armstrong.
A documentary film chronicling sport legend Lance Armstrong’s improbable rise and ultimate fall from grace takes the spectators back to the Armstrong cycling era, when he dominated this discipline with his impeccable performances at the Tour de France. Once seven-time winner of this gruelling event to banned for life from the sport.
This is Lance Armstrong’s cycling career captured by Alex Gibney on a documentary film, which runs on the Doccie fest at Ster Kinekor Cinema Nouveau. It was released on Friday June 13.
In 2009 Alex Gibney was hired to make a film about Lance Armstrong’s comeback to cycling. The project was shelved when the doping scandal erupted, and relaunched after Armstrong’s confession.
The confession took place on The Oprah Winfrey Show.
Director Alex Gibney set out to film The Road Back, a documentary on cyclist Lance Armstrong’s comeback year after a four-year retirement from the sport. Three years later, on October 2012, a doping investigation led to his lifetime ban from competition and the stripping of his seven Tour de France titles, and the documentary was shelved.
On January 14, 2013, three hours after his appearance on Oprah, Armstrong went back to Gibney to set the record straight about his career.
The project was back on track following Armstrong’s eventual confession on The Oprah Winfrey Show, which was viewed by millions of people globally.
This intriguing documentary picks up events in 2013 and presents a riveting insider’s view of the unravelling of one of the most extraordinary stories in the history of sports. As Lance Armstrong said: “I didn’t live a lot of lies, but I lived one big one.”
Oprah unveiled Armstrong’s secrets, which he kept hidden for so many years, while his team mates, supporting team and managers all did so well. He returned to the sport he loved so much after being diagnosed with cancer in 2009. “If I didn’t make a comeback, we would have not be sitting here today,” he said on The Oprah Winfrey Show.
One of the most talked-about doping scandals in the history of sport erupted, creating headlines around the world. Amrstrong managed to manipulate team mates and his own lie, but eventually he could not distance himself from it. The fall came when one of his old teammates asked to cycle for team Armstrong and was denied. Another team mate for years also tried to reveal his doping methods, when he refused to use these methods.
The Armstrong Lie (running time 124 minutes), a documentary chronicling cycling legend Lance Armstrong’s improbable rise and ultimate fall from grace, is the fourth and final film in the Doccie Fest.
For screening times and booking information for the 2014 Doccie Fest, visit www.cinemanouveau.co.za or sterkinekor.mobi, or call Ticketline on 082 16789. Follow Cinema Nouveau on Twitter @nouveaubuzz or on Facebook.
