12 EPISODES OF VARIOUS LENGTH

BACKSTORY

The first season of the reem started in early 2010 as a experiment. After having finished the documentary Demolition Men which premiered at the IDFA 2006 (but was never released) I wanted to create a documentary in real time, editing parts of the story as they happened so together with the audience a film, the story comes together. Nobody knows how this is going to end, not the filmmaker nor the audience, which made it challenging and very exciting.

At the time youtube was gaining traction but still had its limitations with a max length of 10 minutes and vlogging was non existent, looking back it was pioneering and it worked. Alistair became one of the most prolific and high profile heavyweights outside of the UFC because of his accomplishments but also because fans were engaged in a way they never experienced before giving The Reem kind of a cult status within the fight scene.

FORMAT

The series are episodes of various lenght in black and white. The choice was made because I love black and white, and to make the grading process easier, faster and smooth out the various different lighting which comes with run and gun style filming. The format also gave me the freedom to explore area's I wanted to go musically, like using Hiphop B side instrumentals as soundtracks and having a overall freedom to create without producers, distributors or anyone having influence over the creative. As the episodes progressed I made it a sport to make every episode better than the last one, a workethic that still runs today as a way to train myself. This is where that all began.

ABOUT ALISTAIR OVEREEM

Alistair Overeem is a mixed martial artist from the Netherlands. He started out in the dutch fightscene (because of his brother who was already a big name in the sport) and quickly got traction in Japan where fighting was blowing up. Being talented and young, his brash style of fighting and impressive lanky physique made him quickly go up the ranks culminating in a 3rd place at the Pride light heavyweight tournament of 2005, still one of the most iconic fight tournaments in fighting history. After his run in Japan he moved over to the USA where he became Strikeforce heavyweight champion, went back to Japan where he became K-1 (kickboxing) champion winning the prestigious K-1 heavyweight Grand Prix defeating 3 men in one evening. This story is told in this first season of The Reem (here on the left). He later signed with the UFC where he still fights today, chasing the final belt missing on his wall: The UFC heavyweight title.