Thin Ice, has been selected for participation in Hot Docs new Docs for Schools Programme, and will be screening at 10am-12pm on Tuesday, April 24th along with The Fighting Cholitas at the Bloor Cinema. It is also anticipated that the film will screen at various times throughout the festival week in schools across greater Toronto. Docs for Schools, in its second year, is a service that offers free non-public screenings of current documentaries to high school and middle school students to be used as learning tools. An estimated 10,000 young people will be participating this year in an event that is ever growing in popularity and interest with the education community.
Thin Ice was nominated for the Silver Wolf at IDFA . Both the producers, Fredrik Gertten and Margarete Jangård attended the festival to market our films and promote coming productions. Thin Ice and also Belfast Girls was at Docs for Sale, one of the world´s most important markets for creative documentaries. Both the directors Håkan Berthas (Thin Ice) and Malin Andersson (Belfast Girls) was at the festival.
The girls compete in their first game.
Thin Ice is in competition at the seventh annual Tempo Festival, held November 8th till November 12th in Stockholm. New for 2006 is the Tempo Documentary Award that will distribute 75 000 sek to swedens best documentay film. Among the seven nominees both Belfast Girls and Thin Ice is in competition.
The seventh edition of the Tempo Festival will screen the best documentaries from sweden and around the globe. Out of nearly 100 presened films, 30 have swedish or world premiere. It will be five days with films ranging from a Hebrew king with seven wifes, a lesbian nun and animated doumentaries. This years special focus is on Brazil and films about Food, Power and Environment.
The prize winning ceremony will be held on Saturday November 11th and will be aired live on swedish national television.
Korea
Istanbul, Turkey
New York City
Bratislava, Slovakien
Leipzig, Tyskland
Istanbul, Turkey
New Zeeland
Breuil-Cervinia & Valtournenche, Italy
Canada
Malmö, Sweden
Italy
Tennessee, USA
Toronto, Canada
Chicago, USA
Greece
Praha, The Czech Republic
Copenhagen, Denmark
Croatia
Australia
Amsterdam
Spain
Nominated to the Silver Wolf, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Stockholm, Sweden
YOU KNOW IT’S pretty cold when you need one of the best sleeping bags money can buy, a pair of thermal gloves to read your book, and when the water in your toothbrush mug freezes over – indoors. Welcome to Ladakh: an isolated province in the Indian Himalayas. Filmmaker Håkan Berthas spent the winter of 2005/2006 documenting the highly unlikely story of how ice hockey came to Ladakh, where conditions actually turned out to be ideal for the sport. “Anyone who ever put on a pair of skates and who looked out on those enormous frozen lakes would know just how perfect they are.” As it happens, ice hockey has turned out to be hugely popular in Ladakh. “It’s a desert area. There are no natural fuels, so they don’t heat up their houses. When it’s cold indoors, it’s better to be in the sunshine outdoors. And that’s when it’s perfect to play hockey.” By tradition, the sport has been dominated by menand boys. But during the 2004 national championships, agroup of girls caused uproar by insisting on playing in thecompetition too. The whole thing was caught on camera byan amateur Swedish filmmaker. Word reached Håkan Berthas,fresh from his success with the documentary Nabila,and on the lookout for his next project. As a former icehockey player himself, he was completely taken with thisstory of the girls who challenged the status quo.The upshot is a classic Rocky-style underdog tale of sportand equality.“Just like Nabila it’s about girl power. People must thinkI’m some kind of super feminist,” Håkan Berthas quips.The director was helped in his task by a fortunate seriesof events. By chance, a female American backpacker andformer ice hockey player had turned up at the school inLadakh, where the girls were studying. She agreed tobecome their coach. There’s also some topical religiousinterest in the fi lm when the Buddhist girls need a few moreplayers for the team and turn to a neighbouring school inKargil, where the girls are Muslims. That was when HåkanBerthas managed to stage something of a mini revolution.“I joined in a little ice hockey myself in front of the mullahs,and managed to get them to agree that the girls couldplay wearing trousers!” Written by: HENRIK EMILSON "Against all Odds" in Swedish Film # 9 2006.