Racism should not be a part of the world, but still it remains. Like an everlasting shadow, it lingers in the corners. Even during our times, we have seen how fatal racist people can be towards black people. The death of George Floyd remains one of the biggest eye openings for the people who live in their cocoons of utopia. Direct as well as indirect discriminations are still going on in a lot of fields.
A lot of films and documentaries has brought up the issue in front of the audience. Black Ice is one such film. The movie focuses mainly on the world of Ice Hockey in Canada. It shows us how varied racism can be, how it impacts the players and hence, decays the spirit of the sport. The events and occasions are indeed, quite surprising.
But is Black Ice based on real stories? The film shows the struggle of black players. Whatever we are seeing on screen, is it true? In this article, we are going to talk about the possibilities and more details of this movie. So, please feel free to read it below.
Is Black Ice Based On A True Story? Everything We Know
The film basically creates a very dramatic vibe when it starts. We get to see a lot of sports events and championship matches in context. We get to see some black players of the Canadian Ice Hockey League facing the camera. Some of them are newly retired players, while some of them are veterans. All of them talk about their experiences and how they were racially discriminated. But how true are their words? Did they really face such incidents?
To answer your doubts, yes, they did. Yes, the film Black Ice is based on true stories. Every scene you will get to see contains huge amount of history behind it. Every moment of the movie is real facts – the director just adapted them in form of a dramatic documentary. Apart from this, he has also taken parts from ‘Black Ice: The Lost History of the Coloured Hockey League of the Maritimes, 1895-1925’. The book was written by Darril and George Frosty and published in 2004.
If you are empathetic, you will feel the pain behind the words of the players. It shows us how racism has taken its place in every stratum of Canadian Ice Hockey. The director has taken up a great job to show us their journeys, their wounds. Let us talk a bit more about the film itself.
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Black Ice: The Untold Stories Of Discrimination In Sports
Sports should be the field which treats everyone only on the basis of their skills. Their performance, athletics and capabilities should determine their importance. But sadly, this is not the case in some parts of the world. The famous Canadian Ice Hockey League is not out from the list. Unfortunately, the discrimination has remained the same throughout generations. The players we see are not only black, some of them are indigenous or BIPOC athletes.
In 2019, a famous ice hockey player Akim Aliu opened up in front of the media. Bill, his coach was racially harassing him during a match. Akim’s stories about the racial slurs he heard from his frustrated coach, is totally unfortunate. A lot of former players also came forward and expressed their views regarding their experience, and Bill ultimately got fired. Veteran black and indigenous players started to talk about the discrimination they faced in the sport. As years of racial profiling started to come forward, the world was shocked.
Back in 1895, there was Maritim Hockey Leagues too. The movie takes us back to even those days when racism used to be a popularly accepted way. A part of the society used to consider the black people as an undeserving race. The white supremacists did not treat them with respect and they violated their basic rights. Although this was long ago, the film Black Ice shows us real interviews and true story of biasedness. Audiences were surprised after watching the anti-coloured tendencies in the world of Ice Hockey.
The Team Of Black Ice: Cast And Crew
The director Hubert Davis along with producer Vinay Virmani takes the audience throw a heartbreaking documentary that features former Canadian Ice Hockey sportsmen who faced racism. The film features real players, coaches and veterans.
We get to see people like P.K. Subban, Wayne Simmonds, Devante Smith-Pelly, Ron MacLean, Kevin Weekes and Janelle Joseph. After they released it on September 10, 2022 at the Toronto Film Festival of that year, Black Ice won the prestigious People’s Choice Award For Documentaries. To know more, you should definitely watch the film.
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