Ice, Sweat & Tears - CBC TV - March 7th

[WildRose]

CBC is airing a new skating documentary on Thursday, March 7 at 9:00 p.m. (9:30 NT): http://www.cbc.ca/doczone/episode/ic...and-tears.html

At competitions and at home in Canton, Michigan, the film shows how Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir mitigate the pressure of sharing the same rink and the same coach (Marina Zueva) with their rivals – Meryl Davis and Charlie White.

In Virden, Manitoba, the film follows hometown heroes Paige Lawrence and Rudi Swiegers on their own path to the podium. But as they compete for a spot on the world team, Paige suffers a last minute concussion.

Ice, Sweat and Tears also follows Patrick Chan as he smashes records and builds a program with new choreographer Jeffrey Buttle. Unlike pair skaters, Patrick must handle the pressure of being the best without the support of a partner.

Featuring luminaries like Kurt Browning, Elvis Stojko, Lori Nichol, Marina Zoueva and Christy Krall, Ice, Sweat and Tears shows how today’s athletes are pushing skating to new heights.

[Sylvia]

A review of the documentary:.http://www.ottawacitizen.com/enterta...878/story.html

Though we're being treated to excellent interviews with Canada's rising and established figure skating celebrities - including Patrick Chan, Elvis Stojko, Kurt Browning, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir - the movie has to compress these moments into sound bites, many of which are offered in voice-over to the action.

It's all fascinating material and the footage is perfectly fine. But one hungers for a moment long enough to linger, because it's often in the empty spaces and the long pauses that someone's true soul surfaces for the lens.

ETA another review: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opi...195505381.html

Written and directed by Michael McNamara (Fanboy Confessional, The F-Word: Who Wants To Be a Feminist?), the film follows several of Canada's top figure skaters -- including two-time world champion Patrick Chan, Olympic gold-medal ice dancers Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir and rising-star pairs competitors Paige Lawrence and Rudi Swiegers -- as they prepare for the 2011-12 season.
...
Much of the film is devoted to watching the skaters' preparation for the competitive skating season. Of particular interest is the contrast between the training regime of Virtue and Moir and the schedule employed by Lawrence and Swiegers.
...
In addition to the competition-overview aspect, Ice, Sweat and Tears also takes close-up looks at some of figure skating's unique elements, from a scientific breakdown of the difficult quad (four rotations in the air) jump and the physical dangers skaters face every day to the delicate psychology of the "kiss and cry" area.

It's fascinating stuff, and it goes a long way toward explaining how much hard work is involved in making a skating program look easy.

[Fort]

http://www.timescolonist.com/enterta...katers-1.85937

An article with a little bit more about the documentary makers themselves among the expected blurbs.

Edited to add in another variation:
http://www.lfpress.com/2013/03/05/al...rtue-of-london

[Artemis@BC]

I'll read the reviews after I've watched the doc. It's not like I'm going to let reviews persuade me it isn't worth watching!

BTW, it repeats on CBC Newsworld on Saturday & Sunday, several times.

[yukisnowflake]

[QUOTE=Fort;3856869]http://www.timescolonist.com/enterta...katers-1.85937

An article with a little bit more about the documentary makers themselves among the expected blurbs.

I love & concur with the following statement in the article:
"Certainly there are fans in other sports who are devoted and obsessive, but the skating fans are really an interesting breed."

[Sylvia]

http://blogs.windsorstar.com/2013/03...e-skating-101/

Markham Street cameras focused on five skaters in particular: World and Olympic ice dance champs, Canadians Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir; two-time and reigning world singles champion Patrick Chan; and an up-and-coming pairs team from Manitoba, Paige Lawrence and Rudi Swiegers. They are seen going through their paces at practice, taking the good with the bad at competitions and dealing with the pressures of media attention.

Globe and Mail review titled "An inside look at the bizarre, intense world of elite figure skating": http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/...rticle9382282/

[sap5]

I love & concur with the following statement in the article:
"Certainly there are fans in other sports who are devoted and obsessive, but the skating fans are really an interesting breed."

What makes skating fans "an interesting breed" as compared to other obsessive sports fans? I don't understand his statement.

[yukisnowflake]

What makes skating fans "an interesting breed" as compared to other obsessive sports fans? I don't understand his statement.

I took it to mean we are unique ( in a good way).

[momnatur]

I just hope that someone can capture it for us non-canadiens. please.

[manhn]

Americans who live along the border have access to CBC.

[Sylvia]

I'd love to hear some impressions of this documentary from those who watch!

[lurvylurker]

A PVR Taping Tip: in order to find and record this, I had to search for the program name (Doc Zone) -- it didn't show up when I searched for "Ice Sweat and Tears".

[Sylvia]

Re-posting from elsewhere:

You guys might like to know that FSU is quoted as one of the sources for Ice, Sweat and Tears!

Scroll down & it's on the right hand side of the page!

FSU is listed under "Resources and Links": http://www.cbc.ca/doczone/episode/ic...and-tears.html

[AJ Skatefan]

nm

[manhn]

This is what I learned:

1) Figure skating is, like, hard to do;
2) It's better to be the hunter than the hunted;
3) OMG, figure skating is really hard;
4) Marina Zoueva is a fun coach;
5) OMG, FIGURE SKATING IS SO HARD!!!

Honestly, if I ever hear some poster suggest that figure skating can increase its popularity by showing HOW HARD it is, I'm going to scream.

In terms of pre-Olympic skating documentaries, I preferred the one the CBC did before 2006 where they followed Buttle and Leslie Hawker.

I am always a sucker for backstage scenes. I wonder if Kevin and Jeremy's reaction were less "OMG, those scores are so high--Patrick is awesome!" and more "Those high scores are Bull!@^*&!"

[Anemone]

I enjoyed it for the most part. I think they missed the mark in not talking to a few more of the skaters, especially at the high performance camp. I also think they did not give enough info to the casual fan on just how many hours of training a week and the types of training these skaters do. Instead of saying it is hard & takes lots of work, show what they actually do.
I also could have done without the re-airing of the Dube/Davison accident footage and the Salt Lake judging scandal.
I do hope it HAS peaked the interest of some folks out there who maybe don't take skating all that seriously and who will maybe consider watching some of Worlds next week when it airs. New fans for the sport can only be a good thing.

[made_in_canada]

Given that it was a quick one hour snapshot of the sport I thought it was really well done. It was a fairly accurate portrayal of figure skating and I'd imagine for those that don't know much about the sport it would be enlightening.

[bmcg]

I thought an hour was too short. I guess because of the time allotment and the need for commercials they did a fine job with it, would have to ask a non skating fan to be sure. For a skating fan I could have done with a lot more and might have edited it slightly different.

[victorskid]

Presumably the timing was chosen to increase interest in Worlds on CBC next week. Unfortunately, it was obvious to anyone "in the know" that quite a bit of the filming was done more than a year ago. There were references to the 2011 Canadian championships in Moncton and Kristy Krall was featured as Patrick's coach, even showing them playing cards while waiting for his turn to skate. Overall, I enjoyed it.

Some of the fans were familiar "characters" who have been commented upon on FSU from time to time. One fan said that her then-future husband was all set to propose to her back in 1988 but she was too caught up in the battle between the Brians at the Olympics to pay attention and he had to wait until the next day

[La La Candy]

Living in a US boarder town, I'm lucky to get CBC and was able to watch ice, sweat and tears. I wasn't overly impressed. Maybe it's because as noted above..an hour didn't seem long enough. Also, as mentioned above, I didn't find it really captured the amount of actual training time (20 hrs a week etc..). I don't know - it just seemed to skim the surface and not really get into the nitty gritty. I find the Zoueva camp fascinating and would have loved to see and hear more about the training dynamic of Virtue/Moir and Davis/White. There were some interesting comments made..but they never delved deeper into how that situation actually works. From what I saw, it looks like the teams maybe do stroking exercises/drills and runthroughs as a group - but when it comes to lesson/coaching time..it appeared that Virtue/Moir and Davis/White are coached separately and alone on private ice.
I did enjoy Lawrence/Swiegers and find them just charming. Lawrence is a gem. Would have loved to see more of them...
I also enjoyed Patrick Chan and seeing the relationship with Krall / hearing her insights and philosophies. It actually made me feel like parting ways with Krall wasn't the best way to go for Patrick - she seemed really good for him.