- A heartwarming and comedic look at a unique father and son relationship. Documentary director Bryan Friedman reunites with his long-estranged bodybuilding father, 59-year-old "Grandmaster" Bill Friedman, as he pumps iron, tans, and watches his weight - all in preparation for a final shot at winning back the senior bodybuilding title he once held.—Lars Knightly
- Every June, 59-year-old Bill Friedman waxes his body, strips down to the smallest bikini shorts imaginable, slathers himself with bronzing spray and then struts his way across a stage where he flexes his impressive muscles and gyrates before a crowd of hundreds. Bill is a competitive bodybuilder a former world champ in the age 50-60 category. And now hes determined to win his title back.
Documentary director Bryan Friedman is 26. Bill Bryan's dad hasn't been around since Bryan was a baby. Over the last two decades, the two have spent virtually no time together. Bryan's feelings are complicated but mostly negative, with a deep dose of embarrassment over Bill's muscle-bound body and single-minded bodybuilding obsession.
Now, Bryan is chronicling his dad's attempt to make it back to the top. And somehow between bench presses, tanning sessions, costume shopping and the occasional furtive cigarette the two men are coming to know, and maybe even sort of understand, each other.
Told with humour and sensitivity, The Bodybuilder and I is a feature documentary about success, failure, shame and family. It is a journey into the strange subculture of geriatric bodybuilders and into the life of a man who is determined to regain his status as champion. And it is the journey of an estranged son trying to discover who his father really is in hopes that he can learn to love and respect him for the first time.
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