White Pine Pictures and Adobe Productions International have collaborated on Ice-Breaker, a feature documentary about the 1972 Canada-Soviet Hockey Series, directed by Robbie Hart.
The Ontario/Quebec copro is produced with the cooperation of the central government’s branch of Canadian Heritage through its Commemorate Canada program, which financially supports initiatives that perceive individuals, spots or occasions of national importance. Extra financing is as yet pending.
Ice-Breaker will be released in fall 2022 to match with the 50th anniversary of the Summit Series, which saw Canada and the Soviet Union contend in a demonstration of the world’s best hockey players. Canada would proceed to win the series. The doc will share untold insights regarding how the series became.
Filmoption International will deal with distribution in Quebec, while White Pine Pictures handles distribution in the rest of Canada and globally.
Ice-Breaker has been licensed by Super Channel for the English-language market and by Bell Media for the French-language crowds on Crave, Canal D and RDS. The film will likewise be screened at schools as a team with Historica Canada and at “high profile community screenings.”
Hart will direct and produce Ice-Breaker, with extra makers including White Pine Pictures president Peter Raymont, columnist Roy MacGregor, producer Helen Parker and former ambassador Gary Smith, who was a representative at the Canadian Embassy in Moscow during the 1970s and arranged the Summit Series.
“We are delighted that Canadian Heritage has chosen to support Ice-Breaker, a feature film and doc series that will open the eyes of Canadians to the extraordinary events of September 1972, when the country was brought together as never before by a unique series of historic hockey games,” said Raymont, in a statement. “Sport can be an extraordinary catalyst for national unity and offers an important sense of belonging for new Canadians.”