Candid camera
By Liu Wei (Liu Wei)
2009-03-03 09:10
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(Left): Usain Bolt is one of the highlights in Gu Jun's documentary. Yang Shizhong (Right): Liu Xiang winces moment before his dramatic Olympic withdrawal. Sheng Jiapeng |
Have you ever seen Usain Bolt DJ-ing? Do you have any idea what his home lunch was like before he rocked the world with his triple gold at the Beijing Olympics? Or how about the pained look on Liu Xiang's face even before he was forced out of the hurdles?
Those images are part of the official documentary of the 29th Olympic Games.
Ever since the Stockholm Olympic Games in 1912, the International Olympic Committee has commissioned a director to shoot a documentary on the summer Olympics.
Mainland documentary maker Gu Jun, 42, was chosen for the Beijing Olympics and on March 24 last year, the first day of the torch relay, she and her five teams traveled to various cities in Africa, America, Europe, the Middle East and East Asia.
Among the tens of thousands of athletes at their disposal, Gu and her teams picked two or three in each of the five regions, including Asafa Powell and Usain Bolt in Jamaica and Liu Xiang in China.
"Whether they were likely to win gold medals was not the most important thing," says Gu. "We considered both the athletes' stories and whether their sports meant something to the region."
For example, they profiled an Iranian female tae kwon do competitor. "We thought people would be curious about Middle Eastern women competitors because there are so few of them and they're rarely profiled," says Gu.