This film has its world premiere in Perth at the Studio Theatre on Tuesday, September 06 at 7:30 pm. There also will be showings at 2:00 pm and 7:30 pm on Wednesday, September 07. Tickets will be available through “Tickets Please” Perth is the home of the bestselling author of Ice War Diplomat by Gary J. Smith, a former Canadian diplomat and Perth resident.
September 2022 marks the 50th anniversary of the 1972 Summit Series, the iconic hockey tournament that pitted the best players from Canada against the best from the Soviet Union. It was a defining event in Canadian history.
To commemorate the 50th anniversary of this historic event, two award-winning filmmakers, Robbie Hart of Adobe Productions International in Montreal and Peter Raymont of White Pine Pictures in Toronto, teamed up to produce a groundbreaking feature documentary. Gary J. Smith’s behind-the-scenes book, Ice War Diplomat: Hockey Meets Politics at the 1972 Summit Series (Douglas & McIntyre, 2022) was in part the basis of the film. The book is a critically acclaimed national best seller.
ICE-BREAKER – The ’72 Summit Series.
This compelling film will launch next month with a series of public screening premieres across Canada, beginning Sept 6 and 7 in Perth, Ontario, and followed by screenings in Kingston (Sept. 9), Ottawa (at the Bytown Theatre, Sept. 17) , Sudbury (at Cinefest, Sept. 20), Lunenburg (at Doc Fest, Sept. 22-24), Toronto (at the Hot Docs Cinema, September 28,), and Calgary (at the CIFF, September 28). Screenings in other cities are in the works.
The Toronto premiere is the 50th anniversary of the thrilling climax of the 8-game series in Moscow on September 28, 1972. Filmmaker Robbie Hart will attend all these screenings, often with former diplomat/author Gary Smith.
While other films have looked at the ’72 Summit Series from the players’ point of view, ICE-BREAKER enlarges the canvas to tell the story from the unique perspectives of a diverse cast of participants who are rarely heard: diplomats, NHL hockey legends, Soviet players, journalists, fans, broadcasters, business leaders and Team Canada’s Chairman – all reveal untold, exclusive stories about what happened before, during, and after September ‘72. Wayne Gretzky, Ron Maclean, Margaret Trudeau, Harnarayan Singh, Angela James, Danièle Sauvageau, Mike Keenan, Brian Conacher, Alan Eagleson, Terry Mosher (aka cartoonist AISLIN), Liam Maguire and others, including Russian hockey legends Vladislav Tretiak, Alexander Yakushev and Boris Mikhailov – all bring their colourful, highly engaging perspectives to the film.
ICE-BREAKER gives a unique voice to Canadians who were directly involved or impacted by the Summit Series, while relating the remarkably intense on-ice competition of those eight iconic hockey games. It all culminated on September 28, 1972, Game 8 in Moscow. With the series tied at 3 games apiece and with one tie, that final game to decide the winner was watched by 150 million Russians and 16 million Canadians, the biggest TV audience in Canadian broadcast history. Schools and businesses closed, and the entire country came to a standstill to watch on TV or listen on radio.
The documentary is based on Adobe Productions International film director/producer Robbie Hart’s original concept. The film is unlike anything ever done on the subject, uniting cinematic, evocative landscapes, poetic narratives, and behind-the-scenes politics, as well as exclusive access to AISLIN‘s contemporaneous Moscow drawings and the iconic 1972 photos by Frank Lennon.
