Documentary on steroids questions assumptions

"It's difficult to make a film about a subject people don't want to talk about," said Christopher Bell. "But I think your job as a documentary filmmaker is to have access to something that no one's ever seen before."

Bell's first feature film, "Bigger, Stronger, Faster: The Side Effects of Being American" (opening Friday), deals with the escalating reliance on steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs. A prizewinning power lifter himself, he turned the cameras on his own athletic family. Both of his brothers are weightlifters.

"I think I had an advantage because I had my own brothers to talk to," said Bell when he brought the movie to the Seattle International Film Festival last month. His older brother, Mike, nicknamed "Mad Dog," said he had used steroids and had nothing to hide. His younger brother, Mark, nicknamed "Smelly," felt the same way.

"The worst thing about steroids is that they turn people into liars," said Bell. The movie reveals that his own family had been less than candid about it.

"My parents knew about my older brother, but not about my younger brother. When I told my parents I was going to make the film, they had this idea I would be attacking the issue of steroids in sports. But I did tell them it's going to be very difficult, and if at any point you want to shut this down, you can."

While they were shocked at some of the revelations, they wanted to continue the film because they felt it was important. His mother, who told him "this is really bothering me," even asked to be interviewed again. Eventually so did his father, who reopened the conversation by mentioning that he'd like to include "something I forgot."

"My parents just kind of went along with it," said Bell. "I thought the best way to approach it was face-to-face, to sit the family down and have a conversation. ... Our family became really tight because of this film."

Although the movie seems at first a direct assault on the use of any kind of artificial help for athletes, Bell gradually starts to question and undermine assumptions that can seem absurd when placed in a slightly different context.

Should Tiger Woods, for instance, be penalized because he had Lasik eye surgery that makes him a better golfer? What about the use of beta blockers to overcome stage fright?

And haven't anabolic steroids been blamed for things they might not have caused? Is there such a thing as "roid rage," or is that just a convenient, catchy scapegoat term?

"In no way do I condone the use of steroids," said Bell. "But I think there are certain points of use and abuse. I also think it's been hyped in the media. When someone has nine drugs in his body, and he commits a murder-suicide, why do you blame one? Why blame steroids?"

Bell thinks it's "this idea of cheating" that is behind the attention lawmakers have given to steroids lately. He started working on the film four years ago, around the time Jose Canseco's book "Juiced" addressed the subject, and he's watched recent, high-profile congressional hearings rely on confused testimony.

"I just want people to re-examine the issue and look at it in a different light," he said. "I'm not a politics kind of guy. But I've become way more political than I've ever been in my life because I started realizing the hypocrisy behind these things.

"We interviewed a lot of politicians. Some didn't make it into the film, and most of them had no answers. They really need some experts in there who can tell the truth."

John Hartl: johnhartl@yahoo.com