Junior: A Hockey Season off the Ice Directed by Isabelle Lavigne & Stéphane Thibault, 2008

This documentary marries the steady pace of fiction films with the sensitive eye of the “direct cinema” tradition. It intentionally shows no scenes of hockey being played, yet proves that what happens off the ice is no less exciting. Admired and treated like professionals, junior hockey players are already stars whose lives have very little margin of error. They are also teenagers as young as 16, who are already gambling with their future. Trainers, shareholders, agents, scouts and parents: all eyes are fixed on these elite young players, even though only a tiny number of them will succeed in playing at the highest level.