‘Red Penguins’ Documentary Director Nearly Threw Away

Gabe Polsky had simply gotten out of a screening of his 2014 documentary “Red Army” when a “crazy guy” approached him with one other unimaginable story in regards to the Russian hockey staff that might develop into his subsequent documentary “Red Penguins.”

He was so disinterested about studying any extra in regards to the historical past of Russian hockey that he and his spouse have been cleansing home and nearly threw away an enormous field of memorabilia despatched to him by somebody he thought should’ve be a loopy particular person. It seems although the field of fabric was a “treasure trove” of sports activities historical past, and that loopy particular person turned out to be one of many producers and topics of “Red Penguins,” Steven Warshaw.

“Right away I didn’t want anything to do with it because I had just made this huge movie about Russia and hockey, and I didn’t want anything to do with it,” Polsky advised TheWrap’s Steve Pond following the movie’s premiere at TIFF. “Somebody had to do this story. I was reluctant at the time, but I knew someone had to do it, and step by step, I got seduced into telling the story.”

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“Red Penguins” follows Warshaw about how he hoped to revitalize Russian hockey within the post-Soviet period by bringing in a trio of trendy, showy American gamers from the NHL into the nation. The premise is the reverse of Polsky’s “Red Army,” which checked out how Soviet hockey stars in the end reworked the NHL with their elegant, exact and regimented type of play.

But Polsky’s documentary additionally examines the cross part of how drastically Russia modified within the post-USSR days, however Warshaw knew that his materials not solely helped to inform that story of Russia within the ’90s however that Polsky was the one to inform it, even when he thought Polsky would simply ignore him.

“I was persistent, and I wore him down I guess, and after a while, he realized the insanity of what was in that treasure trove of Russian Penguins,” Warshaw mentioned. “And to this day, 26 years later, you’re lucky to get out with your life and lucky to get out in one piece.”

Watch the interview with the staff behind “Red Penguins” Gabe Polsky and Steven Warshaw above.