Montreal filmmaker looks behind the scenes of 1972 Summit Series
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Loading... - Ignjat Cerovic
- 20 Mar 2023
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Ice-Breaker: The '72 Summit Series will have its local première at Cinéma du Parc next week.
Robbie Hart turned what looked like a huge problem into an opportunity.
The seasoned Montreal documentary filmmaker had just begun work on his feature on the 1972 Canada-U.S.S.R. Summit Series when he learned there was another major project in the works on the same topic and that the competing made-for-CBC series was officially sanctioned by the 1972 Team Canada players. That series has already aired on CBC.
Because of that, Hart didn’t get access to Ken Dryden, Serge Savard, Yvan Cournoyer or any of the other stars from the Canadian team that pulled victory from the jaws of defeat in Moscow in September 1972 by beating the Soviets on a goal from Paul Henderson with only 34 seconds to go in the eighth and final game.
But he did get Gary J. Smith and a great story that most Canadians are not familiar with. Smith was a young Canadian diplomat in Moscow in 1972 and he played a key role in helping to set up this epic hockey series. Hart met with Smith at the suggestion of veteran Canadian sportswriter Roy MacGregor, who also appears in the documentary, and in the end the film is based in part on Smith’s 2022 book Ice War Diplomat: Hockey Meets Cold War Politics at the 1972 Summit Series.
Hart’s film, Ice-Breaker: The ’72 Summit Series, will have its local première at Cinéma du Parc with screenings Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday at 7 p.m. Hart, Smith, Cournoyer and Montreal Gazette cartoonist Terry Mosher, a.k.a. Aislin, who features prominently in the film, will be at the cinema Monday for a post-screening discussion. Hart and Smith will be on hand for all three screenings. It will air on Super Channel Dec. 27 and in French on RDS Dec. 26.
“I spoke to Gary and I said, ‘Oh my God, he’s the character, he was in the (Canadian) embassy’,” Hart said in a recent interview at a Mile End bar. “I was like, ‘I gotta go to Moscow with Gary.’ And he hadn’t been back in 50 years. So it was perfect. Gary sent me his manuscript because his book hadn’t been released. He was writing his book as we were getting the film off the ground.” Read More…
