SPMG MEDIA FILM PROFILE: ICARUS

Icarus is a 2017 American documentary film by Bryan Fogel, which chronicles Fogel exploring the option of doping to win an amateur cycling race and happening upon a major international doping scandal when he asks for the help of Grigory Rodchenkov, the head of the Russian anti-doping laboratory.

It premiered at Sundance Film Festival on January 20, 2017 and awarded U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award (Orwell Award).

Netflix acquired the distribution rights and released Icarus globally on August 4, 2017. At the 90th Academy Awards, the film won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

While investigating the furtive world of illegal doping in sports, Fogel connected with renegade Russian scientist, Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov, a pillar of his country Russia’s state-sponsored Olympic doping program. Fogel and Rodchenkov realize they hold the power to reveal the major doping in sports through The New York Times on May 12, 2016.

The ruthless worlds of international sports and politics rarely collide as spectacularly on screen as they do in Bryan Fogel’s thriller that is sure to set off convulsions of controversy.

While investigating the furtive world of illegal doping in sports, Fogel connects with renegade Russian scientist Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov—a pillar of his country’s “anti-doping” program. Over dozens of Skype calls, urine samples, and badly administered hormone injections, Fogel and Rodchenkov grow closer despite shocking allegations that place Rodchenkov at the center of Russia’s state-sponsored Olympic doping program. When the truth is more complex than imagined, and accusations of illegalities run to Russia’s highest chains of command, the two realize they hold the power to reveal the biggest international sports scandal in living memory.

Exemplifying the special bond between filmmaker and subject, this is a vital portrait of the sacrifice some people will make to stand up for truth. ICARUS places you at the heart of an international game of cat and mouse, where a miscalculation can cost you your life.

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