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Chris “Wonder” Schoeck, Dave Carroll, and Ryan Scafuro on the art of the old-time strongman

The documentary Bending Steel was my favorite movie at the Tribeca Film Festival. It follows Chris “Wonder” Schoeck in his quest to become an old-time strongman, but the act of bending steel winds up meaning so much more — it’s an opportunity for Schoeck to break out of his shell, but it’s also a metaphor for everyone’s worthwhile struggles in life. I’m going to do my best to see Bending Steel again over the summer during the Rooftop Films outdoor screening series.

During the Tribeca Film Festival, I had a chance to sit down with director Dave Carroll, director of photography/producer Ryan Scafuro, and Chris “Wonder” Schoeck himself.[…]

At the core of humanity, there is a fundamental need to be accepted and find a place to belong. Some people find it in their family, friends, or romantic partners while others find it in their career or their religious faith. Bending Steel is the story of a man finally finding his place in the world in the most unexpected place, the world of olde time strongmen.

Chris Schoeck is just a typical New Yorker until he starts bending steel in the basement storage unit in his apartment building. Every day, he counts down the minutes until he can be down in his basement again, bending steel nails and bars. His trainer Chris Rider, a.k.a. “Haircules,” is prepping him to perform as part of a revival of the Coney Island strongmen along with a whole cast of larger-than-life characters who bend pennies with their teeth and achieve other superhuman feats.[…]

As we've seen so far with other 2013 end-of-festival wrap-up polls, critics tend to single out one or two top-notch films that rise above all others. Maybe it's the nature of the Tribeca Film Festival's program, but the ballot responses from the members of our Criticwire Network who chose to participate this time praised a wide variety of films and performances from this year's lineup. The results didn't single out any clear winners but nevertheless demonstrated several of the highlights from the recently-concluded festival.

Still, there were some films that garnered several mentions by critics in multiple categories. A pair of dramas about discovery, Tomasz Wasilewski's "Floating Skyscrapers" and Daniel Patrick Carbone's "Hide Your Smiling Faces," topped the overall Best Narrative Feature tally. Haifaa Al-Mansour's "Wadjda," a tale of a young girl growing up in Saudi Arabia, was singled out as a favorite by a few critics who also praised Waad Mohammed's performance in the title role. […]

It turns out that being an old time strongman has less to do with bulging muscles, leopard skin leotards and handle bar mustaches than it does with carrying on tradition and achieving the seemingly impossible. For Chris Shoeck, contorting bodies of solid steel is more than a niche hobby – it’s a personal relationship in which all of his angst and frustrations are converted into physical force and positive vibes. Director Dave Carroll discovered Shoeck and his throwback obsession when his dog wandered into the aspiring strongman’s dungeonesque practice cage in the basement laundry room of the building where they both live. After an awkward first encounter, Chris, who has spent most of his life avoiding human interaction by either bending, boozing or burying his nose in a book, found Carroll to be incredibly easy to confide in. Shoeck’s inspiring transformative journey that’s solidified within Bending Steel is a bravely personal journey of trust and triumph that nods to sideshow history with solemn respect.[...]

And so we’ve reached the end of the Tribeca Film Festival. Known for its wide-ranging selection of films from all over the globe, they truly outdid themselves this year with a slate of diverse, boundary-pushing films that suggested that, outside of the most prestigious fests like New York, Cannes and Sundance, independent cinema was alive and well, flourishing in the fest’s eleventh year. We profiled twenty films at the start of the fest that might be worth discussion, and a number of those spotlight films didn't disappoint. But the excitement of the Tribeca Film Festival is that there's often greatness emerging from where you least expect it.

And so we’ve reached the end of the Tribeca Film Festival. Known for its wide-ranging selection of films from all over the globe, they truly outdid themselves this year with a slate of diverse, boundary-pushing films that suggested that, outside of the most prestigious fests like New York, Cannes and Sundance[...]

Tribeca Talks: ‘Bending Steel’ Trio on Flexing Their Creative Muscles and Finding Themselves through Their Unique Film

Mention the strongman profession in everyday conversation and you are bound to be on the receiving end of a few perplexed looks and shoulder shrugs. And such responses wouldn’t be totally unjust. In fact, the proverbial strongman is now considered a lost art, a form of entertainment that was popular over a century ago in the early days of the Coney Island amusement park scene. But for Chris Schoeck, putting brute strength into action for purpose of crowd-pleasing has always been a dream. He even has a rather unique talent to back up his aspirations: he can bend steel of all kinds with his bare hands. The only thing is, Schoeck is a particularly anti-social person who spends more time with his mangled metal than real-life people[…]

The thing about documentary films that makes them so special is learning about new and interesting things you wouldn’t normally think are interesting. In comes Bending Steel, which premiered at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival and is currently screening at Hot Docs 2013. The film takes a look at the practice of the oldetime strongman by following the life of amateur steel bender Chris Schoeck as he attempts to take his talents pro.

There seems to be a lot of documentaries popping up over the last few years that center on groups of people that have strange or interesting hobbies or professions. In order for these stories to be successful the key is to have interesting an endearing subjects and focus the film on them rather than solely on what they do. This is the case with Bending Steel and it’s what makes the film work.[...]

The 12th annual Tribeca Film Festival wraps up tonight, after a full day’s program of award winners and audience favorites. That gives you one last chance to catch the top titles from this year’s TFF.

Jury members — such as Blythe Danner, Whoopi Goldberg and Evan Rachel Wood — voted on the winners, which include Best Feature “The Rocket,” about a little boy (Best Actor winner Sitthiphon Disamoe) searching for both stability and adventure in rural Laos.

Like “The Rocket,” which also won the narrative Audience Award, the other winners reflect the generally solemn tone of this year’s lineup. Best Actress winner Veerle Baetens, for example, plays the mother of a cancer-stricken child in the wrenching “Broken Circle Breakdown” (which also won Best Screenplay)[…]

The magic of Coney Island in Brooklyn, NY has always been placed in the past. The classic memories of the boardwalk in its heyday include the Freak Show, the Bearded Lady, and the Strong Man. That final Coney Island attraction has been sorely lacking in recent years and Chris Schoeck would like to do something about that. He would like to become a professional Strong Man and bring this lost art back. The problem with Chris is that he doesn’t have a lot of confidence and is extremely introverted. So he’ll need a lot of help to get out of that shell and make his dream come true. Along with his trainer Chris Rider and several Strong Men of the past he’ll work towards his ultimate goal – To be a Strong Man performing at the legendary Coney Island stage. And to literally start BENDING STEEL[…]