And We Go Green - Formula E Documentary by Fisher Stephens, Malcolm Venville

At long last And We Go Green, the documentary following Formula E's fourth season, is finally out into the wild. It is directed by Fisher Stephens and Malcolm Venville and produced by Leonardo Di Caprio. It covers Formula E's fourth season, the last of the first generation of cars. Here's the trailer: 
 

 
There is a catch for now, in that it only seems to be available in France via the Canal+ Sport YouTube page.
 
If you're in France then fantastic - this is your lucky day. If not... VPNs are your friend.
 
The link to the film on Canal+ Sport's YouTube is here [Geoblocked to France]
 
 A more global distribution of the film should follow soon enough, so keep an eye out for updates. 
 

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Viewing options: 

United Kingdom
2nd June at 00:00BST on Channel 4
Streaming on All 4 for 12 months after airing

United States
Streaming on Hulu from June 4th

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Why is this worth my time? 
Well, it's a well made documentary about the world of motorsport. Who wouldn't want to watch that? 
 
"I spent a significant portion of this documentary just watching with a big stupid grin on my face, delighted that someone had made such an exceptional documentary about fast cars. It was that kind of giddiness I haven’t felt about a movie since I saw Rush for the first time." 
- Elizabeth Blackstock, Jalopnik
 
"And We Go Green certainly highlights that sustainability message with conviction, but what Stevens and co-director Malcolm Venville have achieved is even more effective, a thoroughly involving electric vehicle motorsports documentary, with all of the thrilling action, colorful personalities and imminent danger that the genre implies." 
- Justin Lowe, The Hollywood Reporter

Edited by Ben1445, 23 May 2020 - 15:21.

Seen it myself now. 

Agree about Grand Prix but I also got hints of Rush. They probably did study the well reviewed racing films and there's not criticism in that. It's very well edited. 

They covered JEV's story really well I think, and it was really good to get a look in on that. Didn't shy away from Jules Bianchi and how close they were and how badly it affected him, as well as being dropped by Red Bull (my dislike of that 'young driver program' remains as strong as ever) . 

There's a lot to digest in this but it's good. Très bien   

I'll watch tonight, just can't wait!!   

They covered JEV's story really well I think, and it was really good to get a look in on that. Didn't shy away from Jules Bianchi and how close they were and how badly it affected him, as well as being dropped by Red Bull (my dislike of that 'young driver program' remains as strong as ever) .

Defintely. I know it's easy to look at FE from an outside persepctive and say, 'oh that guy who go dropped by Red Bull is reigning champion' and have that guide opinons about the kind of driver in the series and the quality fo the field. But is JEV the same person he was when was racing in F1 with Torro Rosso? No, not in the least.
 
To me, JEV has always had the telent to be a top flight racing driver even within F1. But as this documentary shows he struggled a bit with the pressures of the position he was put under, both generally and by the team of people he was working for. Red Bull's driver program basically lives on the idea of only the strong survive and they put that ruthlessly into practice. My personal opinion is that their approach is, to borrow the phrase from the documentary, 'f***ked up.' Being hositalised for nutritional definciency and dehydration in persuit of performance after being passed over in favour of Ricciardo and becasue of the car weight rules should have been a huge red flag (actually FE needs to get on top of the minimum weights and driver health in that regard because they're on the wrong side of this currently) and JEV's subsequent physical and mental state from that situation should certianly not be a basis to drop a driver onto the scrap heap. Even more so when the guy's childhood friend was at that time severely injured in a horrific F1 accident. What JEV needed was support - Red Bull threw him out, closed the door and put a sign on him marked 'Reject'.
 
You could get quite Machiavellian about it and say that it is justified because all of those expeirences made JEV the driver he is today... and that's not entriely wrong as JEV now is probably the driver he always could have been in F1 - I just don't see it as a reasonable justificaiton. He could have been this good in Formula One. Instead he's this good in Formula E and still gets treated as though he was never good enough for F1.

Edited by Vielleicht, 16 May 2020 - 11:18.

Edited by thegamer23, 16 May 2020 - 13:11.

Yeah I really liked Sam Bird's contributions too, also how when asked if he would consider F1 again he said "I love what I do. Why would I change my life to be back in that shark infested, nasty pool?" which, in the documentary, as a quote seems a tiny bit out of place as I don't really think it delved too far into Sam's experience as Mercedes GP reserve. As far as I am aware that came to an end really nastily when Toto Wolf took over the reigns and left Sam contemplating quitting racing altogether as he couldn't pay bills and taxes anymore.

Every Motorsport fan should see this!
Would like to see it on Netflix or Amazon Prime Video, this needs a bigger media exposure.

Any news about that?

Defintely agree, think it was a really faithful portrayal of the sport, that season and the Formula E paddock generally. A must watch for a motorsport fan. I

Really hope this does get that exposure it deserves, but haven't heard much about a wider release yet.

Also Fisher Stephens is supposed to be involved in the 'Netflix-style' documentary series accompaniying Extreme E, and if the quality of this is anythign to go by it bodes well I think.
 

Yeah I really liked Sam Bird's contributions too, also how when asked if he would consider F1 again he said "I love what I do. Why would I change my life to be back in that shark infested, nasty pool?" which, in the documentary, as a quote seems a tiny bit out of place as I don't really think it delved too far into Sam's experience as Mercedes GP reserve. As far as I am aware that came to an end really nastily when Toto Wolf took over the reigns and left Sam contemplating quitting racing altogether as he couldn't pay bills and taxes anymore.

Here was that story from eRacing-365: https://e-racing365....ing-motorsport/

"It was a nasty period. I basically I got ousted out of Mercedes because of a decision that was made by my management at the time. Toto didn’t like their answer to something and I then never got to sit back in an F1 car again, never got invited to do DTM and I was told: ‘right, your time here is done.’

“[It was] right after I had become vice-champion of GP2 with five wins that year. Five wins in GP2 and you think: ‘hopefully I’ll have a chance of an F1 seat.’ Unfortunately not, absolutely nowhere near. I went from having a job that was paying me well to having nothing. my management at the time was already taking a lot of percentage for the drives and literally I had no money. Nothing.”

Edited by Ben1445, 16 May 2020 - 16:21.

I convinced my family to watch it this evening and they were completely captivated. They said it was in the same league as the Senna film.

Honestly this is really, really good. One of the best bits of motorsport documentary work around I think.  

Really, really want wider release now because it really deserves to be seen...but so glad it's now getting out there for public viewing at least. 

Would be a perfect fit for something like Netflix - 100%. 

The comparisons to Rush and Drive to Survive aren't encouraging 

The comparisons to Rush and Drive to Survive aren't encouraging 

I haven't actually seen Drive To Survive so I cannot comment on that. The best comparison I can make though is to say it's similar to the Senna film in terms of documentary style and editing quality but takes a few elements of Grand Prix to capture what it's like for the drivers and in telling story of the season.

All I only really got from Rush just in the occasional use of I think headlines and points tables to keep track of how the season was going - that's all. 

I would not call it overdramatic or staged in any way. It's just lots of frank, honest and raw opinions which flesh out what was a really interesting season in a beautifully edited fashion. 

Well I thought Senna was a glorified YouTube compilation of a Wikipedia summary, but I'll give this one a go. 

Well I thought Senna was a glorified YouTube compilation of a Wikipedia summary 

I would actually agree with you on that one. 

It was undoubtably well edited but I thought it was too much of a one-sided Senna tribute myself. 

Weirdly I thought the editing was some of the worst bits. Amped up crash effects, onboard audio not in sync(and not even from the same car I think?).

That's fair enough, I can understand that. Inaccurate audio annoys me as well and I think this is guilty of that too at times. 

The real editing strengths of this one I think is how well it ties together the different people and what they have to say into something that digs deep into what makes these people tick. 

Edited by Ben1445, 17 May 2020 - 13:14.

The Canal+ Sport YouTube version has over 10,000 views after 5 days 

And we have news of regional distribution! 

United Kingdom

On TV 2nd June at 00:00BST on Channel 4 

Streaming on All 4 for 12 months after airing 

United States 

Streaming on Hulu from June 4th 

Ah fantastic, good to see it getting out into more regions.

For UK viewers, And We Go Green is now listed in the Radio Times 

For any Polish viewers, And We Go Green will air this Friday on Europsort 1 

https://twitter.com/...798548941402112

Germany has a release date for And We Go Green

Will air on ProSieben Maxx on 11th June 22:10 

https://www.prosiebe...-prosieben-maxx

For UK audiences, And We Go Green will be on Channel 4 tonight at 12:05am 

Will be available to stream after broadcast on All4

Certainly will be interesting to have some more people see this and to hear what they think.

Quite enjoying that the featured drivers now have IMDB profiles

https://www.imdb.com..._=tt_cl_sm#cast

The film is now available on All 4 in the UK right here: https://www.channel4...and-we-go-green

Happy watching 

Review of And We Go Green from ARS Technica

Electric race cars and human drama on display in And We Go Green
https://arstechnica....-and-its-great/
 

Unvarnished doesn't mean unpolished, though. And We Go Green is as much of a visual feast as any recent motorsports documentary, and if you think you detect the influence of legendary Director John Frankenheimer (The Manchurian Candidate, Ronin), good guess.

"Grand Prix was our bible. We watched Grand Prix probably 10 times," said Fisher Stevens, who directed the film with Malcolm Venville.

I knew it!

Fisher Stephens also says that he deliberately avoided taking too much of a corporte tone ater watching Drive to Survive:

"I watched the first season [of Drive to Survive], and my issue is that it is beautifully shot but it's very corporate; you don't really get to know these guys, and we wanted the opposite. These guys are rebels, these guys are renegades. Yeah, they're not driving Formula One—they've been kicked out, most of them—but they're really killers," he said.

Edited by Vielleicht, 06 June 2020 - 10:03.

From that article: 

"Sam Bird started out just like a corporate kind of spokesperson, and I finished the first interview with him and I said, 'Listen, man. I think you're going to do well. I want you to be in this movie, but if you're going to be like that in the interviews, I can't have you in the movie.' I literally just said that. And in every interview, he started opening more, opening more, opening more, and, you know, this guy's never sworn on camera in his life," Stevens explained.

I'm pleased to see that they actively sought to avoid taking the PR line for FE, instead choosing to focus on the raw personalities. Hazel Southwell (who features in the film) says that this approach initially upset a few people and sponsors in the paddock (including Agag). 

But damn does it works so, so well. 

Good news...

And We Go Green will have its worldwide digital premiere on Formula E's YouTube channel this Friday. 

Also you can register now through the FE website to receive extra behind the scenes content such as director commentary, deleted scenes and unseen footage! 

https://www.fiaformu...ch/andwegogreen

Edited by thegamer23, 10 June 2020 - 09:34.

Same here. 

I'm really interested in what behind the scenes footage and commentary might contain...

Edited by Ben1445, 10 June 2020 - 10:17.

Well that does sound like fun.

Looking forward to a worldwide YouTube release.

'And We Go Green' Review: Fear and Yearning in Formula E
https://drivetribe.c...wRemR6ZM78QqLVQ
 

'And We Go Green, the film about Formula E, is a rare thing, a story about peace and redemption, disguised as a sports documentary.'

[...]

And We Go Green is, at its heart, a story of people seeking purpose and finding a place where they are valued. It is, much like the sport it covers, imperfect, unpolished, a little bit ragged around the edges, but also a sports documentary like they used to make in the days before PR approval was needed for everything.

Edited by Vielleicht, 11 June 2020 - 15:59.

One hour to YouTube debut

Popcorn ready!

Edited by goldenboy, 13 June 2020 - 14:40.

Edited by JavierDeVivre, 13 June 2020 - 21:26.

Interview with Sam Bird about being in And We Go Green 

https://all-things-a...nd-we-go-green/

Somehow I don't believe that cut to the face was from a fossil fuel fan that went crazy lol.

Yeah I was wondering about that. I can fully believe a drunk person in a bar might happen to know who Agag is and say something about how much they dislike electric racing, but that conversation turning violent I would call on odd turn of events... who knows really...(other than Agag)... 

Edited by Ben1445, 15 June 2020 - 15:52.

I watched it on the FE YouTube channel yesterday, it was well made and showed a different side to the drivers, we forget how corporate F1 drivers are in comparison to this and this documentary shows how badly made and scripted drive to survive was. Drivers who have tried to make F1 or been spat out and have managed to rebuild their career definitely have an edge about them which makes them more interesting characters.

I had a lot of sympathy for Nelson Jr, he came across well, they gave a good account of his rivalry with DeGrassi, shame Nelson Sr wasn’t there to share in his glory, I guess Nelson Sr is a dyed in the wool petrol head.

I think a disgruntled QPR fan is a safer bet regarding the cut eye than a fossil fuel fan!

I think a disgruntled QPR fan is a safer bet regarding the cut eye than a fossil fuel fan!

I thought the acquisition of QPR with Agag's involvement went pretty well for them? 

I watched it on the FE YouTube channel yesterday, it was well made and showed a different side to the drivers, we forget how corporate F1 drivers are in comparison to this and this documentary shows how badly made and scripted drive to survive was. Drivers who have tried to make F1 or been spat out and have managed to rebuild their career definitely have an edge about them which makes them more interesting characters.

 

I had a lot of sympathy for Nelson Jr, he came across well, they gave a good account of his rivalry with DeGrassi, shame Nelson Sr wasn’t there to share in his glory, I guess Nelson Sr is a dyed in the wool petrol head.

 

I think a disgruntled QPR fan is a safer bet regarding the cut eye than a fossil fuel fan!

I really agree here, and I've certainly said that one of the core strengths Formula E has is that it has a strong number of interesting carachters with interesting stories who you can care about. An underrated asset in my books.
 

Edited by Vielleicht, 16 June 2020 - 13:16.