After three years Hywel Teague from BJJ Hacks released a trailer of a Red Belts Documentary- Red Belts: Grand Masters of Jiu-Jitsu.
If you’re not familiar with the story of this trailer and the problems around it here is.
3 years ago Hywel Teague, owner of the popular video site BJJ Hacks, said he will be making a documentary about BJJ Red Belts. He said that he will track down, interview and film the remaining red belt masters living in Brazil. In his words: “it will be an intimate and revealing look into the art of jiu-jitsu, focusing on a group of men with amazing history in the sport.”
There wouldn’t be any problems about this documentary if Hywel Teague wasn’t looking for money from BJJ Community. He gathered $17,417 and for 3 years he didn’t mention a single word about it. That’s the reason Hywel Teague, who currently works for FloGrappling, has been accused of scamming BJJ Community.
3 years ago and two years after promising the Red Belts documentary Hywel Teague posted on Reddit BJJ:
“Hello, first of all sorry there haven’t been too many updates of late and that the site is pretty much static nowadays. I did send out an update to all contributors and everybody on the BJJ Hacks newsletter just last month – which I will paraphrase below.”
“A LONG overdue update on production of the crowdfunded documentary Hi guys and first of all sorry for the lack of updates about the Red Belts Documentary film.
In truth, I haven’t released any updates for a while because progress has been painfully (and sometimes embarrassingly) slow.
The IndieGoGo campaign that was used to fund production came to end exactly two years ago today (July 19th).
We’ve had a few messages lately asking about where we’re up to, so I just want to put a few things straight.
Yes, we’re still working on it.
No, it’s not finished yet.
As we have been since late last year, we’re editing together the 18 months + worth of footage that we recorded while interviewing the grand masters.
At the same time, we’re also going back over 50 years in the Brazilian national newspaper archives in an effort to source old photos of our subjects in action. This is not an easy task, and is one thing that is holding us up the most.
All I can say is sorry it’s taking so long, and thank you for your patience and understanding.
If you want to contact me directly to ask any questions about production, please feel free to email me (BJJHacks at gmail)
Thanks again for your support
Hywel Teague BJJ Hacks”
one year ago and after many accusations for scamming BJJ Communit Hywel Teague posted on Reddit BJJ again.
“Sorry for the late response, I didn’t see this until now as I’ve been taking a break from Reddit.”
“First off, I apologise that this project has run on and on. I readily admit to anybody who asked that I bit off more than I could chew and underestimated the difficulties in making this project a reality, but I’m not one to give up and have been working quietly on this as much as possible. I have a responsibility to those who donated to complete this, but I also have a responsibility to jiu-jitsu to make sure a part of history is recorded before it’s too late.”
“Why is it taking so long?”
“I wasn’t as proficient speaking Portuguese then as I am now, so I spent a lot of money on translators. With that budget gone, it means things slowed down in translating the many, many interviews we conducted.
Research. Though this project is, in effect, an oral history, I am doing my best to gather primary sources that will substantiate claims made by interviewees. Accessing these is no easy task. Roberto Pereira, the author of Choque, spent years in the National Library and can attest to the difficulties of finding the relevant info.
A word re Red Belts and FloGrappling
These two things are in now way connected. Red Belts Documentary film is my own personal project, FloGrappling is a part of the private company FloSports. Red Belts documentary will not appear on Flo, and they have no responsibility in producing this project.
My contact email is [email protected] – feel free to get in touch with any questions. I am busy but will do my best to answer.”
After all of this, the good thing is, Hywel Teague finally released a BJJ Red Belts Documentary Trailer. Is this documentary really going on or this is just a short movie to quiet the BJJ Community, the future will show.
