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A screening of two hockey themed video works: Valery’s Ankle by Brett Kashmere & Death by Popcorn: The Tragedy of the Winnipeg Jets by L’atelier national du Manitoba.
Hockey is part of life in Canada. Thousands play it, millions follow it, and millions more surely try their best to avoid it altogether. But if they do, their disregard must be purposeful, one of conscious escape, for hockey’s evidence is everywhere. In Canada, hockey is one of winter’s expectations.” (Ken Dryden and Roy MacGregor, from the book Home Game)
Valery’s Ankle
Brett Kashmere
33 minutes (2006)
In September 1972 Canadian hockey pros faced the amateur Soviets for the first time ever. Canada’s victory in this famous Cold War showdown, thanks to a last-minute winning goal, has become the most celebrated Canadian tale of all time. But the games were also marked by extreme acts of violence that are only subconsciously remembered. Valery’s Ankle explodes the spectacle of hockey violence and its representation in North American media.
Death by Popcorn: The Tragedy of the Winnipeg Jets
l’Atelier National du Manitoba
61 minutes (2006)
Peppered with action-packed cameos by Winnipeg All-Stars Dale Hawerchuk, Burton Cummings, Teemu Selanne, Billy Van, and a recent interview with the man who sent the Jets straight into the jaws of death by throwing a cataclysmic box of popcorn onto the ice in Game 6 of the 1990 Stanley Cup playoffs, Death by Popcorn follows the ill-fated Jets through their many battles with “arch-enemies” Wayne Gretzky and the Edmonton Oilers, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, and many other agents of Winnipeg annihilation.
Brett Kashmere grew up playing hockey on the Canadian prairies. He is a filmmaker who now lives in the American Midwest and writes extensively about avant-garde cinema, music and video, curates international exhibitions, and teaches experimental film.
L’Atelier national du Manitoba is un fun-club de filmmaking, founded en 2005. Concerned with preserver les ephemeral cultures du Manitoba, notre travail tends to salvage Manitoban nationalist phenomena des hungry & cannibalistic jaws of self-loathing Winnipegois. Current saveurs d’Atelier includes Mike Maryniuk, Matt Rankin, and Walter Forsberg. About Available Light Screening Collective
The Available Light Screening Collective is a volunteer Ottawa-based group committed to the curating and presentation of experimental film and video art for local audiences. Support for Available Light’s activities is received from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, and the City of Ottawa.