Finlay Pretsell – Time Trial #IDFA2017

PODCAST| Matt Micucci interviews Finlay Pretsell, director of the film Time Trial.

Director Finlay Pretsell presented his feature documentary, Time Trial, at the 30th International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA). The film talks about Scottish cyclist David Millar during his last cycling season. Millar was a racing champion who was caught for doping and then returned, becoming a huge advocate against doping. Pretsell tells us that he is a fan of cycling and of Millar, and that the film took some time to make “because it was quite a big production.” He also tells us that it was a difficult film to figure out how to shoot, and that it was hard to figure out a way out of not keeping the camera rolling: “we could never work out a way to do it any differently because there’s only one chance in a race of capturing these moments.” Making the film about just one person was also part of the risk. He tells us whether he ever felt like he was in the way of Millar’s preparation. “I do kind of feel like we were slightly in the way,” he says. “But they were also keen for a distraction, and we were a distraction.” Part of the power of the documentary comes from Pretell’s attention to detail and interest in the small moments, which contribute to a sensorial experience that takes the viewer right in the midst of the action. For instance, on television, you never hear what the cyclists say to each other, the mundane conversations that they have as they race. But Time Trial is also about the pain and frustration, the struggle of having to race and be on a bike for such a long time. In this interview, the director also talks about his interest in the human aspect of the story, his interest in blending documentary and fiction together, and what Millar thought of the film when he watched it.

Time Trial:  This portrait follows the former British road racing cyclist David Millar during his last cycling season. Director Finlay Pretsell has Millar tell his own story, and allows us to feel the impact the sport has on the cyclist. Immersed in the cyclist’s experience through the camera on Millar’s handlebars, we see his sweat and breathe with him in his race against the clock—he’s not getting any younger, and he wants to secure his spot in the Tour de France one last time. Simply by filming the cyclists, sometimes in slow motion, sometimes blurred and shaky, Pretsell makes us feel as if we too are slogging through the rain. We experience the euphoria of the race, but also the tedium. Music evocative of the piercing, repetitive rattle of a bicycle chain captures the endlessness of the route. The swelling, hypnotic sounds underlying the slow-motion footage make the peloton seem like a heard of hunted animals driven ever onwards. Time Trial shows just how far a man will go in his will to win.