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Glencoe native makes film on old USSR hockey team

Glencoe native Gabe Polsky will tell you straight up that, yes, he had what it takes to play hockey in the NHL.

After attending New Trier High School for two years and graduating from an eastern prep school, Polsky enrolled at Yale University and quickly won a spot on the school's hockey team.

For more than two years, he felt underutilized by the coaches. Finally, during his junior year, he quit, realizing his pro hockey dreams would not come true.

"In order to stay sane and motivated and all that, I looked around to find something else I could feel passionate about. I thought that filmmaking could really motivate me. I thought I might have the ability to tell stories. I might have something to say."

And he does.

Polsky's first documentary, "Red Army," combines both his old and new life's passions: sports and filmmaking. The movie opens Friday, Feb. 6, at Chicago's Music Box Theatre and River East Theater, plus Renaissance Place in Highland Park.

The documentary tells the insightful story of how the Soviet Union politicized and exploited the most successful sports dynasty in history, the Red Army hockey team, a virtually unbeatable squad.

Polsky himself was born the son of Soviet immigrants in St. Cloud, Minnesota. His family moved to Glencoe when he was a year old.

After Yale, he moved back to Chicago for a couple of years to get his bearings.

"I didn't want to be a lawyer, politician, doctor or work on Wall Street," he said. "I wanted to do something a little more creative."

So, Polsky headed out to seek his fortune in Los Angeles, following his older brother Alan Polsky there.

After working for several film companies, Gabe Polsky realized that becoming a producer with his brother was what he wanted to do.

"We realized right away that we needed material that would be attractive to high-level talent, great material so you can get your movie made," Polsky said. "We wanted to set the tone for the things we wanted to do."

Within a year and a half after arriving in Los Angeles, the Polsky brothers were skating on solid ice.

Polsky codirected (with his brother Alan) and produced "The Motel Life," starring Emile Hirsch, Dakota Fanning and Stephen Dorff.

Next, he hired controversial German filmmaker Werner Herzog to direct the Nicolas Cage drama "Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans," a critical hit. ("It was insane," Polsky recalled. "You don't get to work with a guy like that very often.")

Does the field of filmmaking challenge Polsky as much as the testosterone-fueled sport of hockey?

"I enjoy communicating through film," he said. "But when you play hockey, you're communicating on ice, too."

Polsky said that his most recent film, "Red Army," posed its own major challenges, particularly interviewing Soviet hockey legend Slava Fetisov, once the youngest captain in the short history of the Soviet team.

Now 56, Fetisov proved to be a tough interview for Polsky. Evasive and insulting, Fetisov even made a rude gesture to Polsky while taking a call on a cellphone.

"I'm used to pressure situations in hockey, so I just went with it," Polsky said. "I knew he was testing me. Pushing me. Being rough with me. That's the way he is on the ice, you know? He liked pinning me against the boards."

At first, Fetisov told Polsky he would have only 15 minutes for an interview.

The deadline approached. And passed. Fetisov still talked to his interviewer.

For five hours.

"Afterward, Fetisov told me, 'I don't know what you did, but I've never opened up like this before.'" Polsky said, "I thought he was just flattering me, but it was true."

Talk about a miracle on ice.

­­­Dann Gire and Jamie Sotonoff are always on the hunt for Northwest suburbanites with showbiz careers. If you know someone who has a good story to tell, contact them at dgire@dailyherald.com and jsotonoff@dailyherald.com.

Glencoe native and hockey-player-turned-filmmaker Gabe Polsky, right, went on location in Russia to shoot his documentary “Red Army.”

Oscar snub?

Documentary filmmaker and former Glencoe resident Gabe Polsky said he has seen all five of the movies nominated for the Best Documentary Academy Award. He has also seen Steve James' documentary on Chicago film critic Roger Ebert, “Life Itself,” snubbed for a nomination by Academy voters.

“'Life Itself' is a great movie,” Polsky said. “The other movies nominated are very good. We live in a very difficult world. It's not fair.

“I don't think the Oscars process is fair at all. It's not just. But this is how it is. There's nothing to complain about. You just keep going. I suggest you watch 'Life Itself' and watch 'Red Army' and decide for yourself.”

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