This might not seem remotely like Impact material, but… well, we’re fans of that classic, action-filled ice-hockey movie Slapshot… so this real-life story caught our attention…
The upcoming Canadian feature length documentary film ‘Ice Guardians’ which debuted at the Toronto Film Festival will get its UK and European premiere in London later this month, and it will be starring Dr Victoria Silverwood, a criminologist from Birmingham.The film explores violence in ice hockey through the lives of enforcers (which is an integral part of the sport as the enforcers are tasked with the job of deterring their opposition as well as responding to violent play which involves bare knuckle fighting).
Obviously this is a controversial and vicious aspect of sport that has been debated many times over the years, and the film makers welcomed Dr Silverwood’s contribution to the production as an academic who is socially, psychologically and criminologically informed on the topic, after spotting the only female and UK inclusion in the movie on Twitter.
Dr Silverwood said: “There’s a lack of academic research on ice hockey and finding funding sources for research of this type can be difficult. This makes my seven years of ethnographic research on the culture and practice of violence in professional hockey quite unusual.”
NHL stars Scott Parker, Brett Hull and Dave Semenko are all featuring in the film and the trio were in attendance at the world premiere in Toronto on Monday 12th September, boasting an impressive list of both current and former NHL professionals that are involved in Ice Guardians. With the UK being much slower than the likes of USA and Canada in implementing sanctions and laws in terms of violence in the sport, this film could see these problems being finally addressed in a way that a global audience can view and understand.
Ice Guardians gets its European premiere at the Vue Cinema in London, Piccadilly as part of the Raindance Film Festival on Thursday 22nd September offering a chance to see Dr Victoria Silverwood in action.
