THE CANADIAN PRESS
TORONTO — Georges St-Pierre and David (The Crow) Loiseau opened up their lives for parts of four years for the documentary "The Striking Truth."
Director Steven J. Wong says that alone shows the two mixed martial arts fighters really are champions.
"I’m very proud of these guys," said Wong, whose film had its Canadian premiere Friday night. "It’s very easy to say ‘Sure, Steve, film wherever you want. You’ve got full access.’ When time comes and you’re holding the championship belt, it’s easy. It’s easy to say ‘Hey, point the camera at me.’
"But in those hard times — and there are some hard times for both Georges and David in this movie — during those hard times the real man steps up and doesn’t shut the camera down."
The film documents St-Pierre winning, losing and reclaiming the UFC welterweight title. And it shows the struggle of Loiseau, his close friend and fellow Montrealer, in trying to turn his fighting career around.
Both fighters said having a friend like Wong manning the camera made the filming process from 2006 to 2010 seem natural.
"Sometimes I just forgot that he was there," said St-Pierre, who opens up in the movie about his family and is seen disconsolate in his hotel room after losing his 170-pound title. "Sometimes he was filming some shot that I didn’t even know that he had. When I saw the movie, I was like ‘Wow. I didn’t know he had those shots."’
Said Loiseau: "Steven Wong is a friend so when your friend is there, it seems nothing. Thirty seconds and you forget."
But Loiseau acknowledges it took a while to grow comfortable with seeing himself on screen.
"It was hard at first," he said. "When I first saw the rough cut, I was like ‘Man.’
"I have an ego, everybody has an ego and there’s a lot of soft side of me that you’re going to see in the movie that you don’t expect to see. At first I was kind of against it, because I’m used to being confident in public, being very confident and believing in myself in public. It’s a documentary so you’re going to see the shock, you’re going to see the struggle to get back on top."
In the end, Loiseau — who won the Tachi Palace Fights title in California earlier this month — says it was worth it.
"I think this movie will inspire millions of people, whether you’re into mixed martial arts or not. It’s just like "Rocky." "Rocky" was not about boxing. "Rocky" was a human story and that what this movie is about. It’s a human story and it’s phenomenal."
Wong says he hopes to show the movie in Canada via limited theatrical release before it comes out on DVD.
St-Pierre says viewers will get to see a different side of he and Loiseau.
"A lot of people, I think, will identify themselves with us because we come from a normal life. We all have different lives but we come from a very humble place."
The director, a martial artist himself, believes anyone who sees it will see mixed martial arts in a new light.
"I know when people leave the theatre, the human cock-fighting stereotype is going to be a distant memory in their minds," said the 40-year-old from Oakville, who amassed more than 300 hours of footage.
Former UFC champion Carlos Newton, who attended the premiere, says fighting is very personal.
"It’s not so much about the other person you’re going in there to fight," explained the native of Newmarket, Ont. "You’re actually in there to fight against yourself, find out really who you are.
"And some of us that have fought one another, we know one another better than anyone else will ever know that person because it’s such an intimate thing to fight someone. And at the same time, it’s such an intimate thing with yourself in that, trust me, it’s a way to really get to know yourself.
"Climbing in there (the cage) is just the beginning of that process."
