Soul on Ice: Past, Present and Future

This documentary takes you on a journey of some amazing Black hockey players and their stories.

It was very cool to see Herb Carnegie's last interview and how much his story was so influential to many. I enjoyed learning about Jaden's journey and interesting and sad to learn about Val James experience and the unfortunate things he had to go through. However his strong will and ability to preserve in order to continue was remarkable to see. This documentary is inspirational, motivational and encouraging for youth. It shows those thinking of playing the sport, that there is a space fit them as well. It's definitely a classic and a must watch.

"Soul on Ice: Past, Present and Future" is not to be confused with the book, "Soul on Ice", by Eldridge Cleaver. However, I am pretty sure the filmmakers chose this title because like Cleaver's book, this documentary is about the black experience.

While today there are not a huge number of black hockey players in the NHL, numbers have been increasing in recent decades. The film is about this as well as the history of black players in the league and the NHL's efforts to increase diversity. They tell this story through tons of interviews--such as with past black hockey players, families of these and current players, hockey experts and current players.

Overall, this is a very well made film and much of it is because the story was so positive in focus...celebrating old victories and giving the audience reasons to believe things are only getting better. Very uplifting and never dull.