Valery's Ankle Essay Outline

1. Introduction
Thesis: Brett Kashmere uses the popular art form of documentary to express his audacious feelings towards the disintegration of the meaningful sport of hockey to an extreme violent one due to its tendencies.

1. Breif synopsis of documentary
Brett Kashmere’s documentary Valery’s Ankle focuses on the detriment of violence to the sport and the barbaric tendencies promoted by players, fan, and coaches.

2. Defending Brett’s Thesis
Hockey is an increasingly violent sport where each year more and more players receive life altering strikes.
“In the case of professional hockey, it is apparent that the heroic values placed upon players are largely superficial, and that the hockey player’s ability to physically dominate an opponent has little currency outside the sporting arena.” (Robidoux)

3. Documentaries as bias form
Doumentaries are not always the most affective way to communicate one’s message because of the stigma of portraying bias that they inevitably depict.
“The narrative structure must envelop the viewer like a net and
close off all other possible interpretations.” (Critical Art Ensemble)

4. Telling you what to think
Although simply giving his point of view on the topic, Kashmere’s documentary acts as a blue guide to people’s views on hockey.
“Generally speaking, the Blue Guide testifies to the futility of all analytical description, those which reject both explanations and phenomenology: it answers in fact none of the questions which a modern traveler can ask himself while crossing a countryside which is real and which exists in real time.”

5. Hockey’s importance in Canada
No matter the violence it envelops, hockey is Canada’s national sport and their identifiable pride.
(quotation from Macintosh and Hames)

6. The role of violence
Violence, even though not an aspect of the game, it is a huge fan focal point and does encompass a great deal of the atmosphere of hockey.

7. Conclusion
Violence in hockey is not the only aspect that is necessary for the game, although it is important to the overall experience of the game. Brett Kashmere’s documentary does not show violence integrated into the sport, rather he shows it as a solely negative aspect.