Competitive eater and former anorexic Pete Czerwinski, far right, is profiled in the Hot Docs documentary The Story of Furious Pete. (G.I. Productions)

A good documentary subject can often prove to be as elusive as a winning lottery ticket. Sometimes, in the case of Hoop Dreams or March of the Penguins, it can take years of patient legwork to tease out verité gold. Other directors get lucky, stumbling upon inspired, meaty material in an instant.

'I was just shocked, amazed and grossed out that these human beings could do this to themselves.'

— George Tsioutsioulas, director of The Story of Furious Pete

To hear George Tsioutsioulas tell it, he's one of the lucky latter ones. When his hosting gig on a television travel show took him to the Buffalo Wing Festival in Buffalo, N.Y., the Toronto filmmaker happened upon the freaky subculture of competitive eating. It became fodder for his compelling new documentary, The Story of Furious Pete.

"I just thought it was hilarious that there was a festival dedicated to the almighty wing," Tsioutsioulas says of the day he witnessed his first eating contest. "I was just shocked, amazed and grossed out that these human beings could do this to themselves."

Those feelings of shock and awe inspired Tsioutsioulas to start researching the world of scarfing for sport, a journey that led him to Pete Czerwinski, the enigmatic 24-year-old referred to in the doc's title. Pete is a "furious" champion muncher who proves to be shy and soft-spoken on camera, a McMaster University grad student who dreams of working for NASA by day and posts YouTube clips of himself eating sticks of butter at night. Living proof that truth is stranger than fiction, Pete admits in the doc's opening frames that he is also a recovering anorexic.

"I think it took a little bit of time for him to realize that I wasn't interested in exploiting his story, or making him look stupid," Tsioutsioulas says of the period when he first approached Czerwinski about participating in the film. "I just knew that this was a really great, inspiring story in its own bizarre way, and I wanted to tell it."

During its early stages, The Story of Furious Pete focuses on the stranger aspects of Pete's life as a professional eater. Working with his editor and co-producer Igal Hecht, Tsioutsioulas relies heavily on sped-up montages to propel the already adrenaline-charged footage of the competitive eaters. In one grotesque montage, hardcore noshers stand under harsh stadium light, devouring trays of hamburgers at warp speed while the camera records their sweaty brows and grease-streaked chins. In their midst, Pete bobs and weaves, inhaling the burgers with a fluid grace that's akin to dancing. The moment is simultaneously revolting and mesmerizing.

Director George Tsioutsioulas. (Donna Santos/Chandran Media)

True to his word, Tsioutsioulas ferrets out the inspirational side of this tale, veering away from the animalistic spectacle of food contests and zeroing in on Pete's more human struggles. At the height of his lengthy battle with anorexia, a 16-year-old Pete saw his weight and heart rate plummet so low that he wound up in hospital near death. That's a far cry from the buff, omnivorous guy who appears in The Story of Furious Pete. There's a scene at a speaking engagement where Pete describes how his life is proof that you can achieve the impossible.

While Pete appears happy to discuss the clinical side of his former struggles, he clams up when it comes time to visit Toronto's Sick Kids hospital, where he spent his lengthy recovery. Tsioutsioulas admits that it was only in interviewing Pete's mother that he began to fully grasp the painful back story.

"I never fully got it until I spoke to his mother, and then it became real," he says. "She really is the heart of the documentary, I think.

"I completely empathize with her. I've got a little dude, he's going to be two years old soon. I just pictured, as a parent, how awful must it be to stand back and watch your kid go through this? It's one of those strange diseases that, when you are on the outside, it's easy to say, 'Snap out of it! Flick the switch. Get good. You know, get normal!' But it's really not that easy. It's something that takes years and years, and some people never recover from it."

Pete's mother, who is waging her own courageous battle against multiple sclerosis, was such a source of inspiration that in the final third of the film, Pete and the filmmaker team up to show her some love. The climax is deeply poignant — even if it involves 10 lbs. of greasy ribs.

When quizzed about his visible affection for his subjects, Tsioutsioulas replies with characteristic humility. "If I see somebody who I'm getting to know going through something heavy, then I'm going to feel it, too."

The Story of Furious Pete plays at the Hot Docs film festival in Toronto .

Lee Ferguson writes about the arts for CBC News.