SXULLS – a transmedia documentary film project about the Olympic dream.

The next Olympic Summer Games will begin in Tokyo on 24 July 2021. Hundreds of German rowers dream of a place in one of the three boats: one, double scull and quad scull. Fifteen young men have been chosen in autumn 2018 through a tough pre-selection process to fight a fierce battle for only seven free places. All 15 scullers (i.e. the rowers who row their boat with two sculls) faced an uncertain future, as none of them had a guaranteed ticket to Tokyo at the time. Almost half of the candidates had already fallen on their way to the decision. Now eight athletes are still fighting for the six free places in the double scull and quad scull. World champion Oliver Zeidler has already secured his place in the single scull. Ahead of them are decisive months and it will be a long, exhausting fight for the coveted places in the boats and the tickets for the Olympics.

The athletes and trainers will be followed by filmmakers Silvia Weihermüller (producer), Guido Weihermüller (creative director) and Matthias Wolf (director). With the web series SXULLS, they want to spotlight the people who face this incredible fight and illustrate the drama of an Olympic sport that is only in the public eye for a few days every four years.

SXULLS is produced by the independent production company CLOSE DISTANCE PRODUCTIONS. After the successful transmedia film project “DIE NORM – Is taking part really everything?” and the summer fairy tale “Ludwig/Walkenhorst – The Way To Gold” with the beach volleyball Olympic champions Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst, for the third time athletes who want to make the dream of the Olympic Games come true are the focus of a film project. But rowing is not entirely new territory for the Hamburg filmmakers either, because with the project “Wellenbrecherinnen” they have already accompanied four women before, during and after the toughest rowing race in the world, 5,500 kilometres across the Atlantic. The corresponding film will be released in September 2020.

In addition to the web series on www.sxulls.de there are other variations of the implementation. ZDF shows four episodes live on television in the ZDF SPORTreportage and furthermore a longer version in the ZDF Mediathek.

The Team Deutschland publishs the episodes, clips and interviews additionally on their YouTube channel and puts a spotlight on SXULLS and the scullers of the DRV in the sportive community of Germany.

The development of the project can also be followed on the social networks during the production. In these networks, the filmmakers give an insight into their work behind the scenes and provide interested viewers with exciting information. SXULLS provides a completely new, lively and digital form of storytelling, which the team of Close Distance Productions has made into a trademark with its projects.