We had an awesome time being a part of MSPIFF! All three shows were sold out and were very well received by audiences and local media. Thanks to all the folks who came out to the shows, and thanks to the festival’s entire staff for all their hard work putting on three great nights of fun and after-parties. If you happened to miss the show in the Twin Cities, don’t worry…we’ll be back in November!
Jeff Sorem, Tommy Haines, Neal & Sally Broten hanging out at the PH opening night party.
Former Minnesota Iron Ranger and Harvard hockey star, Philip Falcone has been a busy guy lately. In addition to substantial investments in the New York Times and the Minnesota Wild (Falcone recently joined new owner Craig Leipold as General Partner of the Wild), Falcone has spread his wings a bit further yet with – you guessed it – an investment in our very own Pond Hockey, the movie. Philip has joined our crew as Executive Producer alongside Northland Films, and we are very excited to have such a huge hockey supporter on board.
Philip and his New York-based hedge fund Harbinger Capital Partners, are recently featured as the cover story for Business Week.
With the film premiere only 3 days away, tickets are starting to sell out. We’ve also got a full media schedule this week, making the rounds to talk about the film.
On the ticket front, Friday’s public premiere is sold-out. But, tickets for Wednesday (4/30) at St Anthony Main are still available.
If you’ve got a spare minute, you can catch us on one of these local stations:
Thursday, April 24 - St. Anthony Main Theaters - VIP screening with limited public seating
Friday, April 25 - Oak Street Cinema - Official public premiere with public reception to follow
Wednesday, April 30 - St Anthony Main Theaters - Final festival showing
We’d love to see you all at the show of course, but if you can’t get a ticket, don’t worry, Pond Hockey will be back for theatrical screenings and a DVD release in November. If you want to secure a copy in advance, you can pre-order a DVD right now at a special discounted rate in honor of our festival screenings.
For tickets and details of our MSPIFF Festival screenings click Pond Hockey.
We made a fitting final stop on our pond hockey journey to visit with The Great One: Wayne Gretzky. He told us about his childhood growing up in Brantford, Ontario. He first learned how to skate on a nearby river behind his grandmother’s house, and later imagined he was Gordie Howe–practicing by himself on the backyard rink that his dad, Walter, created for him. The Rink-Rat of all rink-rats. AWESOME!
The Pond Hockey crew returned to Lake Nokomis for the 2008 U.S. Pond Hockey Championship. We’ve been at the event every year since it started, but this year was different: no cameras. Instead of filming the action, we chilled out in -15 degree temps, handing out buttons and talking about the movie with as many people as we could. We also got to actually WATCH some games this year. It was a lot of fun, and we made some new friends. Definitely worth braving the cold…but, it always is.
Check out some photos from this year’s tourney here on Flickr.
Also, we had some fun talking up the movie on the local networks. Here we are on KARE, KSTP and MyFoxHockey.com (check number 5).
Good to see so many rink rats on the ice. See you again next year!
“I can tell you I still go to the rink a lot of the time by myself. As luck would have it we live near a pond, right here in Shorewood, MN. I can walk there much like the days growing as kid when I would walk to Glen Avon, a local rink 10 minutes from my house in Duluth, MN. My Mom would bring dinner over in tin foil, drop it off and I would take to the boards sit down eat dinner and get ready for the night cap until my Dad would have to come and drag me home, the next morning back to the rink as I wanted to be the first one to skate on the freshly flooded rink that local Parents had laid down the night before. There is something about skating by your self late at night, the smell from chimneys of neighboring houses, and the dead cold calm of a northern night. The only sound you hear is the puck hitting the boards, your blades cutting through the ice, I can’t tell you how many times I was Brett Hull going top shelf to win the Stanley Cup. They are the best memories of my youth, I lived at the rink, and my parents probably could have rented my bedroom out and set up a bed in the warming house. I hope to pass the tradition along to my little boy Samuel. He is now 8 months old and soon enough we will be going to the outdoor rink for the first time. Man I can’t wait………..”
- Dave Spehar
Here’s a clip from Spehar out at the park with Dave Paradise and Brett Abrahamson.
It may not have had the purity of a frozen pond, but the NHL’s Winter Classic sure was fun to watch. Over here at Pond Hockey movie headquarters, we praise the outdoor game for it’s free-flowing style, creativity, on-the-spot rules and emphasis on fun over competition. And even in the structure of an NHL game there was Crosby’s pond move, there was the grit and unpredictable weather, and certainly fun was top priority. They got it right. If there was one pond element that the Winter Classic could have done without it was the 4 hour game time. An all-day game is a lot more fun when you’re on the ice than on the couch.
But, the Classic was classic. Plus, as an added bonus, it gave our favorite SportsCenter a chance to give us a shout out. Check out Bucci in this clip:
The movie is nearing completion… and we’re pretty damned excited about how it is turning out! We’re shooting for a release date this winter. Here are a few screen shots…
We swung through Chi-town on a balmy -11F night to meet the Chicago FC. These cats dodge rent-a-cops and risk frostbite all for a good game of shinny under the lights of the Chicago skyline. Thanks to the Coll brothers for inviting us out!
