Malo became diabetic at five, and back then everything seemed hopeless: a diabetes nobody could manage, weeks in hospitals in Gap and Marseille without answers. The turn came from a TV interview: Professor Renard in Montpellier, trialling a new insulin pump from the United States. He didn't take children, but asked to see Malo's glucose curves, then called back.
« Ça a changé nos vies, mais je pense qu'elles sont plus riches, plus vraies. Peut-être pas ce qu'on avait prévu, mais c'est autre chose et c'est formidable. »
Malo's grandmotherThey picked him up from school every lunchtime, because the canteen couldn't feed him, and carried him home on the days he couldn't walk. At the club, coaches stopped the group when Malo had a dip, and nobody complained. Ten years on he calls his team a second family. On the start line he is the only one who knows, and once the race begins, he forgets it too.
Malo rides his first season in the French Cup with a UCI team. A pump that shut down in training camp, then again the week of Puy-Saint-Vincent, his father driving up from Gap with a spare. A first camp where he managed his diabetes alone. Three hypos the night before the race, then 29th place after a race-long comeback.
« Il ne faut pas dire que je suis plus faible que les autres, faut dire que je suis plus fort que les autres. »
Malo
I have known Malo since he was four months old. I watched his story with diabetes from the outside, in everyday life and on the bike. In 2022 I fell for documentary film, and the decision made itself: I wanted to tell his story.
Telling his fight made sense to me, to inspire, and to show that you can thrive with the disease. I wanted to tell it the way Malo is: true, sincere, intimate, and full of meaning.
Clément Armand
On , Rémi, president of Malo's club, called: a screening on in Gap, on a double bill with Kilian Bron. The edit had not started and one scene was still to shoot. The film premiered that night in front of 200 people, exported moments before the room filled, and the room stayed with it to the end. It went on to win Film of the Year and Best Storytelling in the pro category at IF3 MTN Bike.
Selections Lookout Wild Film Festival (Honorable Mention) · Dunedin International Film Festival · Mesa International Film Festival · Central Coast International Film Festival (Semi-finalist)
Little Piece of Sugar screens in festivals, cinemas and ciné-conférences, with a Q&A with the director and Malo on request. We want it in front of hospitals, diabetes associations, schools and cycling clubs.
59 min · 2024 · French audio, English and French subtitles · 4K scope DCI, 5.1 / stereo · DCP available