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Episode 144—Vlad Yudin and the Independent Mindset
129 Plays6 years ago
"If I fail, I want to fail because of me. If we succeed, I want to succeed because of us," says Vlad Yudin.
Vlad Yudin, director and filmmaker, stopped by the show to talk about his bodybuilding documentaries and why he left Russia to come to the United States.
This episode is brought to you by Goucher College's MFA in Nonfiction, Bay Path University's MFA in Creative Nonfiction, and my monthly newsletter.
Keep the conversation going on Twitter @CNFPod and @BrendanOMeara.
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Transcript
Introduction to Goucher College MFA Program
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey, CNFers! Batting leadoff today is Goucher College's MFA in non-fiction. The Goucher MFA is a two-year, low-residency program. Online classes let you learn from anywhere, while on-campus residencies allow you to hone your craft with accomplishmenters who have poulter prizes and best-selling books to their names.
00:00:22
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The program does a nationwide network of students, faculty, and alumni, which has published 140 books and counting. You'll get opportunities to meet literary agents and learn the ins and outs of the publishing journey. Visit goucher.edu slash nonfiction to start your journey. Now take your writing to the next level and go from hopeful to published in Goucher College's MFA program for nonfiction. Hmm. Yes.
00:00:50
Speaker
Riff. Oh, that's nice. That's real nice. That's warm. It's warm and fuzzy. That's two IPA buzzy. If you've had an organ IPA, it only takes two.
Meet Brendan O'Mara and His Podcast
00:01:04
Speaker
Hey, it's Brendan O'Mara, and this is the Creative Nonfiction Podcast, the show where I talk to badass writers, filmmakers, and producers about the art and craft of telling true stories. Today's guest is Vlad Uden.
00:01:20
Speaker
A Russian-born documentary filmmaker best known for the trilogy of Generation Iron bodybuilding films, which I believe at least two of them are on Netflix.
00:01:31
Speaker
His Vlad R company makes and produces lots of films in the fitness business, and we unpack a lot of what makes him a particularly free spirit when it comes to his filmmaking. A little warning here, alright, this might be a little off-putting to some of you, and to some extent it is to me as well, but I'm giving you a heads up because I love you.
00:01:54
Speaker
And I'm giving you this heads up because this is what I plan to do going forward.
Guest Introduction: Vlad Yudin and His Filmmaking
00:02:00
Speaker
You ready? Okay. I'm gonna start courting mid-roll ad reads. Not too long, not too obtrusive, I hope, but when you hear the start of this new riff, courtesy of Wheatman on AudioJungle, you'll know you're in for a little plug of some kind. Cue it up.
00:02:26
Speaker
today is a house ad for my monthly newsletter. So I'm not going to say anything here. I will let the ad do the talking. It's only like 35 seconds long. I need to subsidize the show in new and creative ways, especially since I got shit canned from the day job last week.
00:02:43
Speaker
So, as I'm going forward, I might be, like, I'm really working on setting up a Patreon thing, so the more listener-supported this show is, the more ads I can take off the actual recording of the show, in which case it'll be more seamless, and we'll get to the meat of the things that you've come to really enjoy about this show. But until then, like I said, it's something I gotta do.
00:03:08
Speaker
NASCAR, cars go around the track and there's not a single spot on those cars that's not taken up by some sort of an ad. So, helps pay for the whole enterprise. So, okay, now that that's out of the way, be sure to subscribe to the show, iTunes, Spotify, Google Play Music, Google Podcast, Stitcher, and hand it off like a triangular folded up note that you did back in high school.
00:03:37
Speaker
You know, hand to hand. Shout out to Sybil Baker of episode 35 fame, a great writer, great author, who made a similar recommendation of the show to someone who didn't know about it.
Engaging the Audience
00:03:51
Speaker
It was on Twitter and she tagged the show at cnfpod at Brendan O'Mara. That's what you should do. So I knew to engage. And that was really nice. That's what we need. Hand to hand. Rage against the algorithm, man. You're the social network.
00:04:07
Speaker
Okay, and now, batting second, discover your story. Bay Path University, founded in New England, the New England, in 1897, is the first and only university to offer a no-residency, fully accredited MFA, focusing exclusively on creative non-fiction.
00:04:29
Speaker
attend full or part-time from anywhere in the world. In the Bay Path MFA you'll find small online classes and a dynamic and supportive community. You'll master the techniques of good writing from acclaimed authors and editors, learn about publishing and teaching through professional internships, and complete a master's thesis that will form the foundation for your memoir or collection of personal essays. Special elective courses include contemporary women's stories, travel and food writing,
00:04:58
Speaker
family histories, spiritual writing, and an optional, week-long summer residency in Ireland, with guest writers including Andre Debusa III and Hood and Mia Gallagher, among others. Could be Maya, I'm not sure. Start dates in late August, January and May. Find out more at baypath.edu slash M-F-A.
00:05:25
Speaker
I don't know why but I'm really out of breath after that one. Get it together, Brendan. You can do this.
00:05:34
Speaker
Okay, so Vlad is here to talk about his journey as a filmmaker, it's pretty great, and how he carved out a niche, or niche, never know what that word, and a crowded industry. His independent spirit is paramount to him as a filmmaker, and also how he tries to keep things as objective as possible. So let's clear the deck for Vlad Juden.
Vlad Yudin's Journey to Filmmaking
00:06:05
Speaker
brought you to the States from Russia and had you get into a documentary film? Well I moved from Russia to to the States in the 90s basically it was like 95 96 mm-hmm and that's the time where when basically Russia was you know terrible conditions you know for living and especially schooling you know so I had to you know my family made a decision and
00:06:31
Speaker
for me to move over here for a pursuit of a better life. And most importantly, you know, get into better schools and, you know, for career choices, basically. The 90s were just, you know, a terrible time in Russia at the time. And it was a lot of things were collapsing infrastructure and, you know, especially schooling, you know, just wasn't as good as it used to be before that, you know. So it was really a decision for my career and
00:06:59
Speaker
life in general I would say and you know I always had interest in film storytelling and so I you know I went to school here and I eventually pursued my career in film and documentary film. And how old were you when you came over here? I was about 13 years old when I moved to the States. And what state did you move to?
00:07:24
Speaker
New York. Okay, New York. I lived in New York, New Jersey, and New York basically, you know, my whole life, you know, since I moved here. And now, you know, I basically travel over on the world all over the states. And you know, we still based in New York as a company and myself. But you know, we spent a lot of time in different cities. And of course, California is one of them.
00:07:45
Speaker
main places we spend a lot of time in now, you know, now that we're in a film business and bodybuilding, of course, as well. Yeah. And so what were some of the, you know, you said you're into storytelling and then, of course, filmmaking. So what was that? How did you get the bug? What were some of those films maybe that made you want to pick up the camera and be a director yourself?
00:08:09
Speaker
It's always been American cinema that inspired me. You know, when I was growing up, I enjoyed films in different genres. And I watched a lot of Russian films, a lot of films from Europe, France, Italian cinema. But I think American cinema definitely inspired me a lot. You know what I mean? Like the scale of it, obviously the, you know, just the whole kind of the style of making films.
00:08:35
Speaker
you know, from action films to comedies to everything else, American definitely inspired me. The American culture always really intrigued me, you know? So I think that specifically American films inspired me to be in filmmaking, to be perfectly honest. Was there a particular documentary you can point to that made you say like, oh, that specifically is kind of what I want to do when I grow up.
00:09:00
Speaker
You know, it's funny. I never like when I was younger, I never really like watch documentaries too much It wasn't something that I was very interested in like that and documentaries. I was primarily watching feature films documentaries, I think it's something that I enjoyed like later on in life and sort of like I developed appreciation for documentaries as I was watching them, you know a lot of different sports documentaries and you know in general like documentaries the tricky thing, you know because
00:09:30
Speaker
it's like there's so many different things that can be called documentaries, you know what I mean? Like there's sports documentaries, then there's like, you know, reality documentary, it can be documentary also, you know, derives from documentary world, basically. And then there's styles of documentaries, the way they're made. But you know, I definitely developed appreciation for later. I can't really tell when I was younger, like a documentary, I saw a documentary and I wanted to be a documentary filmmaker, you know what I'm saying? Right, right.
00:09:57
Speaker
And when you were getting started, what were some maybe early growing pains you experienced as you were starting your career and starting your craft as a filmmaker? You know, I have a very independent spirit, you know, and I still do to this day. And I'm just very blessed that
00:10:17
Speaker
you know, me and my company, my partners were able to remain independent and have that type of mentality. And in the beginning, it was like, when you're first starting out, you want to be noticed that you want to be sort of like, get a big break, you know what I mean? Like in any industry, where were you trying to get in? Right. And it's always very difficult, you know what I mean? And the film industry is, I think it's very more difficult because it's not a clear path to success, I think, you know?
00:10:46
Speaker
But with the independent mentality, mindset, it was always, let's do it ourselves, let's get these cameras, let's try to come up with topics, and let's try to make projects basically on our own. That developed, I think, a very strong mindset and thick skin, basically, to the point where today it actually helps us
00:11:14
Speaker
to make films that we want to make and to make them successful. And the growing pains is always, how do you get the film? How do you get it out there? Who's going to watch it? How do you get people to watch it? But it's always the biggest challenge in the beginning. But with our mindset, it made us stronger. And I think that really caused success later down the line. That type of mindset and going through these type of challenges made us better.
00:11:44
Speaker
in business of filmmaking, basically. Where does that independent spirit come from that you spoke about, that you've been able to carry over to your film company and to make the films you like based on just your own taste? I don't know, man. I just, I don't know. I think it was in my DNA probably, you know?
00:12:08
Speaker
And same as, you know, as my partner, which is, which is that I don't want to work for anybody really, you know, and just kind of wanted to have that, that freedom, you know, that doesn't mean it wouldn't work hard. I feel like it worked harder than anybody else in this industry. But, you know, we just didn't want to have, I don't know, in my opinion, like this, like, you know, if, if I fail, I want to fail because of
00:12:29
Speaker
because of me, and I don't want to be like somebody else to fail because somebody else tells me to do something, you know what I mean? At the same time, if I want to succeed, I want to succeed because of us, because of my team, basically. I don't know. I think really just part of the DNA. I don't know how to explain it. It's difficult to give a elaborate explanation of what caused it. I think it's just always been that mindset. But that doesn't mean I don't like working on the team or have partners, because we have a lot of partners. We have a lot of team members.
00:12:58
Speaker
And I love working in tandem with people. It's just, it's just the independence. I feel like it's so important. You know what I mean? Especially in today's world where, you know, the filmmaking and digital and everything else allows you to do it. Now it's all about just competing and just trying to find a way to get the audience to watch your films.
00:13:16
Speaker
What would you say was your first, just, you know, quotations around major, but like your first major success that showed you that you were on the right path and gaining momentum doing this thing you love doing?
Success with Generation Iron
00:13:32
Speaker
You know, it's different steps, like kind of like stepping stones, you know what I mean? That we took, we started off making music documentaries, you know, they were made a first feature film called Last Day of Summer that was in
00:13:46
Speaker
I think 2010. That was the first film we actually worked with. Hollywood talent, I would say, was DJ Quas and Nicki Reid from Twilight at the time. So we made William Sadler, those are the people that have been seeing major films. So my first feature film, Callasde of Summer,
00:14:09
Speaker
And all those, you know, before they worked with Sony on music documentaries, we made a documentary, A Big Pun, which is a major music star here in New York. And we always had, you know, kind of like distribution partners, basically. But the first time I really felt good about what we're doing, like, you know, to me, it felt really, really, felt really great is when we made the first Generation Iron film in 2013, we released it fully independent, and that
00:14:38
Speaker
became one of the top grossing documentaries and one of the top indie films of 2013. And we did it fully, fully independent, independently. And that to me was a great accomplishment because they gave us courage to continue building a company, a vertically integrated company, meaning that we control the production, distribution, marketing, and everything from the ground up. Where prior to that,
00:15:06
Speaker
We're really dependent on different other partners, distributors, and in many cases, sometimes you're not happy with that because if something goes wrong, you're sort of like in a limbo. So with the Generation 9 first film, 2013, it was a time where we felt really, really good about what we can do. Of course, it wasn't all great after that. It was still a challenge. It was a lot of challenges and you went to build
00:15:33
Speaker
company more, but it was definitely the first time we felt really good. What would you say is the nature of your particular hustle, not only uncreative, but to get the funding you need and to put these things together? Because it's kind of a balance of that art in business. Absolutely.
00:15:59
Speaker
You know the biggest challenge is always who's gonna watch your films, right? How are you gonna get it to the people right? How are you gonna create an audience because You know everybody wants to make films all independent filmmakers they want to make films really badly And they want to tell stories they want to tell and then they put they put everything they have into like a project Let's say right and then it's time to to get it out there right the most common
00:16:25
Speaker
way to get it out there is take it to a film festival and take it to another film festival, another film festival, right? And try to build the audience that way. That's the most common way to do it, you know what I mean? It's, you know, for us, myself and my partner, Edwin Mejia, you know, we really wanted to build a company that makes films, releases films, and other programs, of course, other media programs.
00:16:54
Speaker
And so it was important for us to have a steady audience, steady base that we had to grow. So after Generation 9 was released, we wanted to build Generation 9 network.
00:17:08
Speaker
and really build an audience to where when we drop a new film, a new project, we have audiences waiting for that to come out. So we invested a lot of effort, a lot of resources into building the audience and continue building it every year after that to where we have our own mini studio system.
00:17:29
Speaker
you know, so where we can put the movies out and we have people waiting for it, you know, because without that, you know, you really a lot of indie filmmakers are struggling every time you make a new film, you have to look for distributor, you know, I mean, it just becomes it's just a whole different type of business, you know, and right.
00:17:45
Speaker
Unfortunately in today's world, you know with technology like allows everybody like right now anybody can be a filmmaker, right? Everybody can buy a camera and be a filmmaker you can make a movie on your Cell phone if you really want to you know, I'm saying yeah, so there's so much competition out there This is YouTube, right? There's so much free even free content out there, right? So when somebody actually wants to like how do you convince somebody to actually buy it from you with so much free content, you know It becomes a challenge in that and I feel like every filmmaker need to find their niche or some kind of a way to
00:18:15
Speaker
for it to be seen basically.
00:18:18
Speaker
Yeah, it's kind of what the brilliant author and marketer Seth Godin says when he says, if you're going to be successful in this kind of age where there is so much content, not only that, but really good content, that you have to seek out essentially the smallest viable audience, whatever that is. And it seems like you've been able to successfully carve out a great niche with the bodybuilding and fitness scene.
00:18:46
Speaker
What would you say came first? Were you into that or did you just notice that there was this sort of subculture that lacked compelling storylines and you're like, oh, if I just kind of, there's an audience baked in over there. If I take my talent to that audience, I can make a living. I can do the work I want to do.
00:19:06
Speaker
Yeah, basically after the first Generation 9 film, you know, we got into the fitness industry. We saw there was a big void in the fitness industry specifically. We saw that there's a lot of, it's a great industry, you know, but it's an immediate space. There was nobody there yet, right? So just to give you a quick background, you know, Joe Wieder was the revolutionary media man and also, you know, you know, a man that really created the fitness industry in this country, you know, in the 70s, 60s and 70s. He built it up. He made the magazines. He made the federations. He made the competitions.
00:19:36
Speaker
He was really the man, you know, that really created this industry here. And then when we came in the industry in 2013, you know, that's basically, uh, there was no media really. It was just, uh, you know, cause Joe Mater sold his magazines and they weren't really, they were just basically print, you know what I mean? It was print magazines. There was some blogs here and there, but it wasn't really like a media channel, you know what I mean? For bodybuilding and fitness. So we saw a big void in that space and, uh,
00:20:06
Speaker
you know, we right away started building our audience from the first film. And we saw that we can be we can revolutionize this, you know, the media space in this industry. And that's what we started working on. Now, of course, you know, when you come into any industry, you know, from outside, basically, you have to you can't just start, you know, I mean, it's not just about throwing money at it, really, you have to kind of build
00:20:30
Speaker
You have to be authentic and you have to build the right team around you, you know So we focused on bringing the right people on board and you know, it took years to really You know build the network up. So we launched our generation iron fitness network generation on comm basically which is To put it in simple words is basically like kind of like device channel meets bodybuilding and fitness So it's a publishing platform. It's a it's original content platform
00:20:57
Speaker
It has, you know, all the news, the latest news, latest original content that we'll create for free. And of course, it's also a mini studio for the releases of original films that we're creating every year now. So we, you know, it took time and it took a lot of effort, but we were able to build it every year more and more to where now it's, it became a leading platform in the space.
00:21:22
Speaker
And for us, it was the major thing that we wanted to create for this industry, because fitness industry, you know, it's kind of complex. Because if you look at a competitive bodybuilding, it's very niche, and it's very, you know, and it's very, very, I would say, small compared to the fitness overall, you know, right? Fitness overall, of course, because social media became very big right now.
00:21:46
Speaker
Uh, but it's still, you know, it's, you know, competitive fitness, bodybuilding is different from just a mainstream body fitness. Um, you know, people just want to work out. Everybody wants to work out nowadays, you know, but we catered towards, we dedicated towards everybody in the fitness. But of course, you know, the, the bodybuilding fans and the core audience of ours are people that really want to live the lifestyle and want to learn more about the lifestyle, you know.
Podcast Extras and Newsletter
00:22:16
Speaker
Hey, hey, what is the meaning of this? Well, I want to say that this episode is also brought to you by my monthly newsletter. Oh, yeah, that's right. On the first of the month, you can get a tasty bit of goodness sent right to your inbox. My reading recommendations for the month and what you might have missed from the world of the podcast. Visit Brendan O'Mara dot com. Once a month. No spam. Can't beat it. Now back to the show.
00:22:46
Speaker
The bodybuilding industry, especially the crew that you were essentially following in the first film, and those IFBB pros, it's a pretty insular and almost secretive community. They struggle to want mainstream coverage, but at the same time if mainstream coverage comes to them, they kind of wall off. They're a bit distrustful.
00:23:12
Speaker
So how did you gain – what was your approach to gain trust to get that close to these – the heavyweights of the IFBB circuit? It's a good question. I think in many ways they were –
00:23:32
Speaker
They wanted the exposure in a sense, you know, they wanted to be heard. And the first Generation 9 film, believe it or not, was very well received by just people that didn't know anything about bodybuilding in general. You know, we got so many letters on phone calls and emails just from people discovering, you know, rediscovering bodybuilding. Because prior to Generation 9, the only other movie really that highlighted bodybuilding was Pumping Iron. Right. That was released in like 1978, I believe.
00:24:00
Speaker
And we actually co-produced Generation Iron, the first film with a producer pumping Iron, Jerome Gary. But the trust, once we started having conversations and filming, it's a connection, you know what I mean? You always connect with the subject in a way.
00:24:20
Speaker
But at the same time, you know, it's always a challenge because you can't become best friends with the subject of a documentary because you have to make it, you have to make it objective. You know, I like to make my films really objective. I like to, I like for the audience to make a decision whether they, you know,
00:24:37
Speaker
What they like about the character what they don't like about the character, you know, I just like to I like to present an objective point of view I don't like to make our Michael Moore style documentaries were just one-sided, you know I'm saying he makes great he makes he makes great films, but it's always a It's always a one side to a story, you know what? I like to do is make at least highlight, you know enough on both sides for the people to to make their decisions and
00:25:02
Speaker
for themselves, you know? So I can become best friends with these guys, but at the same time, I can just tell them, you know, whatever we're filming is what we're filming. You tell them, you know, I ask you the questions that, you know, I think you should be asked, and you answer them how you want answered, you know? And of course, not everybody's gonna be happy with everything, you know? We've made so many films in the last three years, you know, different subject matters in bodybuilding, and somebody's always unhappy with the portrayal or something, but we always try to make it as objective as possible, to be honest with you.
00:25:32
Speaker
Yeah, I think you do that particularly well with the Ronnie Coleman documentary also, because he was such a great, great figure, but you could also be very critical of the way he treated his body during his competitive prime, which ultimately led to how much his body has broken down over the years.
00:25:54
Speaker
So you do show that side of his peers being critical. I mean, they're reverent, but they're also critical of, you know, did this guy really need to be deadlifting 800 pounds two weeks before the Olympia? Like, that's just not really smart.
00:26:10
Speaker
And so you – I think that's a perfect illustration of what you're getting at, of just kind of laying out two sides here, because you could have easily just put them up on the pedestal and just did a 90-minute documentary just worshipping the guy. Yeah, you know, it's the Iranian one. It's an interesting film because I told him before we made the film, I told him, you know, if we're going to do this,
00:26:39
Speaker
you know, we have to, you have to give us access to your life currently, you know, and show us how you live and show us the surgeries and things you go through on daily basis and stuff like that. And he agreed to it. And, um, it's so funny because when we were making it, cause I know Ronnie from before, you know, so I knew he was on crutches. I knew he was, he went through multiple surgeries and, uh, people in, in the bodybuilding industry also kind of knew about it, you know, but,
00:27:08
Speaker
So when we were making the film, it was kind of like, you know, I took it every day, like, okay, you know, because I saw him like this already before, you know, it wasn't like a shocking thing to me. And then when the movie came out, and like, people were shocked by it, because they never saw like a concise piece like that on Ronnie. Yeah. And then some people for the first time saw him on crutches like that in the surgery. And then we're just like, everybody was shocked. And some people
00:27:28
Speaker
was so disturbed by it, they couldn't even finish the film that they told me. But, yeah, and to me, it was like, oh, you know, I was kind of surprised because I kind of assumed that, you know, people would just take it as it is. But, yeah, it was shocking to a lot of people seeing Iranian like this, you know, currently in the present time going through what he's going through. But that was the case where it was very important to get access, you know, I mean, to the
00:27:55
Speaker
to him, and it was very important for us to come to that agreement, for us to be able to film all that.
00:28:02
Speaker
And in this, part of the reason why I kind of like the bodybuilding culture is the monastic drive and focus that the men and women have for their discipline. I'd even extend that to ballet and anyone who has these singular focuses. I really love following those people.
00:28:27
Speaker
Would you say that that's a big reason why you're attracted to this particular niche of your filmmaking because of that singular focus? To me, it's something that I still want to discover more and more every year. The drive of the bodybuilding athletes in that industry
00:28:50
Speaker
I would say it's probably the most rewarding sport on a financial level when it comes to the specifically competitive bodybuilding I'm talking about. When I say the most difficult, I believe that because it's a very tough sport mentally and physically, and really you're being judged based on your look. You're being judged on specific criteria, but it's based on the look of how you look.
00:29:17
Speaker
Um, so you constantly being judged on your body basically, right? So like, you know, it takes a toll on you through constant changes and, you know, bodybuilding, of course, for those who don't know, it's, it's, you go through phases, you know what I mean? Like right before the competition, everything's changing, you know, uh, this off season, on season, and it's just a constant thing. And to me, it's always, you know, uh, I'm learning something every year about the mentality of what they go through. Um,
00:29:47
Speaker
And sometimes bodybuilders differ from each other. Some are more dedicated, some are less. Because of genetics, some can get away with more, some can get away with less. And everybody has different mentality. And for me, the excitement is kind of learning the differences. And every project we do, I'll learn something else.
00:30:11
Speaker
Yeah, and something that I've always found a bit problematic with professional bodybuilding is it's not that the performance enhancers of steroids or HGH and whatever diuretics they need to take to dehydrate their body and get a nice grainy look for the stage.
00:30:28
Speaker
It's – what always kind of bugged me was the fact that that's never really acknowledged yet. These guys are kind of the face of nutritional companies and they kind of say, like, if you take this, you'll look like me. But they are also pumping themselves full, you know, a laboratory's worth of chemicals.
00:30:49
Speaker
I wonder if you personally as a storyteller and objective storyteller in this world, if that's something that is hard for you to reconcile as you tell these guys stories. No, it's not difficult for me.
00:31:04
Speaker
Because you can make the same analogy to life in general, you know what I mean? Like you have professional athletes from every sport promoting something, endorsing something, right? You don't know what they take in behind the closed doors. That's first of all. But secondly, we just made a film actually called Enhanced. It's number two documentary in the country right now. You can check it out on iTunes. It's called Enhanced. It's about a character named
00:31:30
Speaker
Tony, his name is Dr. Tony Hughes. You should check it out if you didn't see it yet. Yeah, I haven't seen it yet. This is the guy that's basically the opposite of that, right? He's not a professional bodybuilder, but he calls himself the pioneer of the human evolution. And he basically is actively promoting different steroids, different substances. He's experimenting with pretty much every substance in the world. And his goal is to
00:32:00
Speaker
he thinks the steroids and all types of different substances are meant to help people in general, not just in bodybuilding, but in general. So it's it's all the opposite of, you know, because normally, obviously, when you make a bodybuilding movie, right, bodybuilders don't necessarily want to talk about this stuff, right? Because it can affect their endorsements, they can affect their, you know, it's just it's just something you don't talk like any others, like you don't see baseball documentary, they talk about steroids, right? You don't you don't see that, right? It's just something you don't necessarily mention.
00:32:29
Speaker
But with this film, it's all about that, and it's a different approach on things. He's 100% honest, or he claims to be honest, and it looks quite shocking because of how open he is, basically, but it's like a different take on that. He's in the fitness industry, and he is all about promoting steroids, and he claims that steroids should be
00:32:53
Speaker
Taking by everybody for different reasons, of course and not just steroids, but like this, you know, obviously when we say steroids I mean like there's like hundreds of different compounds, you know and he's and he's actively explaining and promoting it in film and You know, you know, of course we have his critics that criticize him for that and
00:33:14
Speaker
And it's an interesting dynamic. So that film kind of covers that. But me personally, your question was originally, do I feel conflicted with that? I don't, you know, because we do cover, you know, steroids in various films, different in various forms. But I know I feel conflicted because ultimately, you know, it's just life. You know what I mean? Some people will talk about it. Some people won't talk about it. And that's not just bodybuilding, but that's just every single
00:33:44
Speaker
sport and every single, you know, whatever else is there.
00:33:50
Speaker
that people, you know, that people participate in, whether they want to talk about water or not. Right. And so with, you know, Generation Iron, the first one, you know, follows this, this sort of, what's the word, like kind of a cohort of bodybuilders going to the Olympia.
Deep Dive into Generation Iron Series
00:34:06
Speaker
Second one really focuses on social media and fit those fitness stars in your third film. It's kind of that striving for excellence and versus perfection and whether, whether that's good or bad.
00:34:19
Speaker
Would you say that you're the third one like that's the conclusion of a generation iron trilogy or is this something you you see? Keep building on going forward
00:34:32
Speaker
Well, as a Generation 9 network, we make, you know, last show we made four films, you know, released four films. This year it's gonna be, I think, four or five films. So under the umbrella of Generation 9, we're gonna make many, many films. Some are, you know, kind of like Biopic, like Ronnie Coleman, you know, we're making a movie about Dorian Yates right now, which is a legendary bodybuilder. You know, so there's gonna be various films under the umbrella of Generation 9. As far as Generation 9's title as a film, as a trilogy,
00:35:02
Speaker
You know, we made a trilogy and that's supposed to be basically it. Unless something comes in that would fit the genre and we'll expand on it. But as of now, this is a trilogy that was completed in my opinion. And now we're focusing on a variety of other films under the umbrella of Generation R. And what would you say is your greatest driving motivation these days? Right now, the biggest motivation is
00:35:33
Speaker
the fact that we're able to build a generation on fitness network and we're able to reach a lot of people.
00:35:39
Speaker
and we're able to give people content that they want to see, that they can't see anywhere else. That's sort of the responsibility and the focus of today's mission that we own. It's something that we are able to deliver for the audience and we have to make sure that we continue to do so and make sure to cater to them because ultimately they can't find it anywhere else. We know that we're the ones providing it for them.
00:36:06
Speaker
So it's a big responsibility, but it's also a big motivation for us to keep going forward and make sure that, you know, people are not only, you know what I mean? Like just get everything needed to them, what necessarily they expect to see, but also give them something unexpected and open up their minds more. And this is why we make films like enhanced.
00:36:26
Speaker
something completely different, someone from the Generation 9 series, let's say, and continue to give them things to open up their minds, basically, more. But do it in a way where it's quality and they feel good about watching it, basically, at the end. So these days, who would you say is your favorite bodybuilder? And that could be a historic one or a current one, but who is someone you look up to in the bodybuilding world and be like, oh, yeah, that man and woman's got it figured out.
00:36:55
Speaker
I don't know. Honestly, I don't look up to anybody in general in life. I don't want to sound arrogant. I just don't look up. You know what I mean? It's just something I don't really look up to people. But the people that I'm really intrigued by right now, I would say, is Dorian Yates. That's why we're making a movie about him right now. Dorian Yates actually has a very interesting past. I don't know how much you know about him, but he's from the UK. And he won six Mr. Olympia titles.
00:37:26
Speaker
back in the 90s. And very interesting storyline, because when he was young, it was a skinhead in UK, right? He was a skinhead, actually. Then he became a bodybuilder. Then he became sort of like, you know, he always was like when he was a skinhead, he was always into Jamaican culture, right? So it's very interesting that he was able to kind of like combine both and have both
00:37:55
Speaker
thing's influence, so it's very, very strange. And then after he retired from bodybuilding, he had a very interesting kind of like, life, you know, life altering experience. And now he's heavily into marijuana, he's kind of like a hippie, you know, he lives in Spain, on the coast of Spain, and he's sort of like, does yoga and stuff like that, you know what I mean? He's a very interesting guy. Yeah. And this this movie we're making about him is to me very, very
00:38:26
Speaker
you know, different from everything else we've done, because he's so interesting. But when he made it very special in bodybuilding, he was kind of like the first mass monster. So before that, before him, bodybuilders were kind of like more slimmer, more just had different types of physiques. And when he came in, he was like this huge brolic bodybuilder. And he kind of like, in many ways changed bodybuilding to where it became more about size after him.
00:38:54
Speaker
So like Ronnie Coleman is basically is came after him and he was kind of like Had to take his body even further. You see I'm saying? Yeah So Dorian Yates was the guy that really changed bodybuilding and kind of pushed in the direction of size That's very interesting and you know That's one of the historical figures, you know, but the other guy that always intrigued about I'm always excited about working with his Kai Green. Yeah from Brooklyn, New York, you know, this is the guy that's
00:39:24
Speaker
very different from any other bodybuilder, you know, that I know, because there's so many different layers to him. Artistic, you know, he's artistic, he's obviously a great bodybuilder accomplished, but also just like he always creates a lot of excitement from people all over the world when they meet him.
00:39:46
Speaker
He's very intellectual, very, like I said, artistic. He paints, he does art, he does comic books. And just conversing with him all the time is very interesting because so many topics we always talk about and we work closely with him on different projects. So definitely always intrigues me and in some ways inspires me as well.
00:40:12
Speaker
Absolutely. And Vlad, lastly, where can people get more familiar with you and your work online and find you online if they want to get more familiar with your work?
Explore More on Generationiron.com
00:40:24
Speaker
Absolutely. I encourage everybody to go to generationiron.com to find out all our original content, films, and really just, you know,
00:40:34
Speaker
For your audience, whoever is listening to you, they just want to learn about bodybuilding culture or get the daily news about bodybuilding and fitness or just get maybe advice about how to work out and stuff like that. They can go to that website and they can see a lot of great information. Fantastic. When Dorian Yates' documentary comes out, we'll have to have you back on the show to talk about that and a little bit more of your process to filmmaking too.
00:41:02
Speaker
Let's do it, man. I look forward to it. Fantastic. Vlad, thanks for the time. And we'll be in touch down the road, man. Thank you so much, Brandon. Good talking to you, man. You too. Take care.
00:41:13
Speaker
Hey, do you like that? Do you dig the show? Do you dig the new heavy metal there in the middle of the show? I mean, any chance to riff charge this beast? I'm gonna do it. Name another podcast of this kind that sends you into the mosh pit. I dare you. Anyway, thank you to our sponsors, Goucher College's MFA Nonfiction, and Bay Path University's MFA and Creative Nonfiction, and also my newsletter. Hey!
00:41:40
Speaker
Thanks to Vlad, and thanks to you for listening. Be sure to subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts, the usual places, and head over to BrendanOmera.com for show notes and the newsletter. Keep the conversation going on Twitter, at BrendanOmera, and at CNFPod, on Instagram, at CNFPod, and on Facebook, Creative Nonfiction Podcast. Catch you covered.
00:42:05
Speaker
We're all in this crazy mess together, man. So let's just keep working, keep making good stuff. And remember, if you can do interview, see ya.