Men’s Hockey, 28 min., 2011 (original cut, 58 min., 2004), digital video

Men’s Hockey is a glimpse at a privileged and intimate space where men prepare for
competition with each other. Recorded in a direct observational style with a
dispassionate formal rigor, this document reveals the texture, complexity and
everydayness of a single day inside the locker room of a professional hockey team in
Rockford, IL. Absent of interviews and voiceover, Men’s Hockey is formed through a
meticulous reconstruction of a palpable and conflicted social space inhabited by a variety
of characters and roles including coach, player, audience, referee, mascot and arena
maintenance.

Events unfold chronologically from body movements focusing on the stomach done in
preparation for the game to the application of hands and ice to knee joints and ankles
after the game. These seemingly mundane details transform into meaning and rich
metaphor in Men’s Hockey, where the goal of winning is shared by both team and coach;
the respective experiential differences of this goal, however, are great.

Brief bio
Steve Wetzel is an American artist who currently teaches in the Film Department at the
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. It’s here where he makes a living challenging
middle-class youth to think more critically about the world they share with others.

Much of Wetzel’s work focuses on masculinity, social construction, and the sacredness of
events—their singularity in time and space. These themes can also be found in a book he
penned in 2010 that was described by his editor as “an urgent and generous exegesis …
[a] re-collecting of thoughts and experience, a naming of bullshit.”

Some recent group shows, performances and screenings include the Angstrom Gallery,
and the LA Filmforum in Los Angeles, CA; the Hyde Park Arts Center, and Rowley
Kennerk Gallery in Chicago, IL; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Detroit, MI;
CinemaSpace at the Segal Centre for Performing Arts, Montreal, Canada; and the Ann
Arbor Film Festival where Steve won a Jury Award in 2010.

Read: Interview with Steve Wetzel by Ann Arbor Film Festival Director David Dinnell
from December 2010.

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