Produced in Partnership with The Mediapro Studio, the six-episode series filmed in Mexico, the U.S., and Paraguay, created by journalist and author Juan Villoro, and directed by Everardo González, will premiere on TelevisaUnivision’s SVOD service on September 22
ViX+ and The Mediapro Studio announce the premiere of docuseries, Cenizas de la gloria, which was filmed in Mexico, the United States, and Paraguay against the backdrop of the world of sports and focused on the analysis of criminal cases that involved various Mexican figures in soccer, boxing, baseball and wrestling. The new series will arrive on ViX+, TelevisaUnivision’s premium subscription service (SVOD) on Thursday, September 22.
Cenizas de la gloria is the second production from the strategic content partnership between TelevisaUnivision and The Mediapro Studio and the first to premiere on ViX+, following the announcement of the fiction series Las Pelotaris 1926.
A combination of sports documentary and true crime, Cenizas de la gloria is a six-episode investigation of various criminal cases involving well-known sports figures in Mexico. The docuseries tells the story of six athletes: Salvador Cabañas, Esteban Loaiza, Julio Cesar Chavez, Juana Barraza, Jose Alberto Loera Rodriguez and Ruben Omar Romano, who were involved in the world of crime, either as victims or perpetrators.
The creator of Cenizas de la gloria is the prestigious Mexican author and journalist Juan Villoro, a great connoisseur of the world of sports, to which he has dedicated numerous articles, especially related to soccer. In addition to his journalistic publications, Villoro has written books such as El Testigo [The Witness] (XXII Herralde Novel Prize), Dios es Redondo [God is Round] or Balón Dividido [Ball Divided] and, among other distinctions, he has been awarded the Manuel Vázquez Montalbán International Prize for Sports Journalism by FC Barcelona.
According to Villoro, facing the challenge of Cenizas de la gloria allows him to discover that “sometimes the most dramatic matches take place away from the field.”
The series is directed by Everardo González, one of the most relevant documentary filmmakers in Mexico and Latin America, whose works have been screened at the most prestigious international film festivals in Berlin, Toulouse, Locarno, Montreal, Sarajevo, Guadalajara, or Valladolid, in addition to the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam or the Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema. Among his most important titles are La Libertad del Diablo [Devil’s Freedom], Amnesty International Award at the Berlinale, A 3 Minute Hug, Netflix’s original series for Latin America, or Children from the Narcozone, nominated for the News & Documentaries Emmy Awards.
Everardo has commented that “accompanying the tragic destiny of these well-known names makes it clear that the higher the flight, the harder the fall; and that, in a country taken over by organized crime, there is no glory without blood”.
The executive producer on behalf of ViX+ is Gabriela Remirez. On the MEDIAPRO STUDIO side, it is carried out by Daniel Burman, Carolina Bilbao, Juan Pablo Santos, Laura Fdez. Espeso, Javier Mendez and Javier Pons.
