For his very first documentary experience, Dominic Arpin is interested in endurance sports – which can also be described as extreme – but above all in the people who practice them.
In a reduced formation, the film team, consisting of director Jérôme Pinette, cameraman Martin Boufard and Dominic Arprin himself, traveled to all corners of the world to shoot the series “Les crinqués”, which will be released on Escape these days.
The boys went to the United States to follow cyclist Sébastien Sasseville as he crossed the country for the Race Across America, and then to Thailand to follow Bruno Blanchet, a keen runner. She also followed high jumper Lysanne Richard, who is preparing for one of the toughest jumps of her career while recovering from an injury, and Charlotte Levasseur-Paquin, a Gaspésie, on the GR A1 – probably Quebec’s most difficult race – in autonomy .
Both beautiful and captivating, the series unfolds in a very neat aesthetic that lets the postcard landscapes shine through. The viewer thus becomes a direct witness of the preparation of these super athletes – ordinary people who have nothing superhuman but have given themselves the means of their ambitions. “We wanted to make a beautiful show, something that’s both pleasing to the eye, but also nourishes the soul a little and lets us understand what’s behind the human being,” emphasized the presenter in an interview with QMI agency during the recovery from a virus.
The film crew wasn’t afraid to mobilize to get the perfect shot, even going so far as to walk 25km of steep trails with all their gear on their backs.
A whole scare in Mexico
The documentary begins in the Mexican state of Chihuahua, where the “Crinqués” team followed Isabelle Bernier and husband and wife team Joan Roch and Anne Genest in the Ultra Run Raramuri, a 190km race through gorges with 10,000m of elevation gain.
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The expedition takes place in a barren desert where some of the trails are in drug cartel territory. Getting up at dawn to take some shots in the rising sun, the film crew had quite a scare when they were apprehended by the Mexican army, who followed them in a helicopter.
“The day before there was an attack on a member of the government and the army was on its feet. A helicopter, a Griffon, flew overhead, then came back and started circling around us. Eventually he ended up in the “parking lot” where we were parked and we had to walk towards them slowly with our hands on our heads – the soldiers were armed with machine guns. We got our interpreter because nobody spoke Spanish very well and he explained to them that we were there for a shoot,” explained Dominic Arpin.
“I can tell you that we really had the bitch that day. It was our first stint of shooting and I imagined ending up in prison in Mexico. It was the most stressful moment of the series,” he admitted.
Dominic Arpin, who runs TVA’s Vlog, has long dreamed of making a documentary. “I’ve been telling myself all the time that I’m not ready, that I don’t have the right subject, but the stars were there and it’s a subject that I’m still good at. These are also athletes that I’ve been following for a long time and I’m also very interested in this question,” says the host, who already has a list of names for a possible second part of this series in mind.
The program “Les crinqués” is broadcast on Thursdays at 8 p.m. on Évasion.