Winnipeg filmmaker follows his heart to award-winning series

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This article was published 04/03/2024 (900 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Randy Frykas is taking his victory lap.

The Winnipeg-based filmmaker planned to be busy this winter filming the latest instalments of his rapidly growing docu-series, the Outdoor Hockey Club, but has taken time to admire his work instead.

What started as a hobby in the spring of 2020 has won two film awards since Frykas began uploading his work on YouTube a little more than a year ago.

“Awards and accolades only come around so often, if at all,” said Frykas, 43. “I made a choice to not bury myself in work and really enjoy this.”

Outdoor Hockey Club tells some of the most compelling stories Canada has to offer on outdoor rinks. Last winter, Frykas visited eight communities as far west as Moosomin, Sask., as far east as Newmarket, Ont., and as far north as Whitehorse, Yukon, to speak with ice makers, hockey enthusiasts and those who have built a community around the pastime.

In the spring, after completing the first series of the documentary, Frykas created a two-minute trailer to promote his project. In a short time, a member of Warren Miller Entertainment, a film agency based in St. Boulder, Colo., saw the trailer and encouraged Frykas to submit it for the 2023 Outside Awards, which celebrates up-and-coming storytellers and emerging voices in snowsports.

To meet entry requirements, Frykas re-edited his trailer into a five-minute short film with all of the best cuts from his winter-long expedition.

“You just pick all the best moments, your favourite moments, and you just whittle it down from there,” he said. “Because I had that trailer made, I did all the hard work in advance.”

Frykas won the Outside Awards’ Purpose category for highlighting activism, which earned his film a spot on the Warren Miller film tour with two other projects. Outdoor Hockey Club toured more than 200 cities across Canada, the U.S. and the U.K., and was watched by thousands.

At the end of the tour, in September, viewers voted on their favourite of the three films for the People’s Choice Award. Outdoor Hockey Club was the overwhelming winner, earning more than half of the votes.

“It’s been re-affirming and, as cliché as it sounds, to follow your heart,” said Frykas, who visited five cities on the tour. “I’ve had a lot of time to reflect and I think about all those times where I worked really hard to apply for a documentary production or a TV series… and in two weeks you find out they decide to go in a different direction.

“I just felt if I’m going to put my time and effort into trying to get a role on someone’s show and I don’t get it, why don’t I just take that and put it into something that I really love and even if it doesn’t take off, at least I still have this thing that I’m working on and it’s mine,” he continued. “That’s kind of been the resonating thought that I keep coming back to is: trust your instincts. Just go with what you want to do and it’ll work.”

Outdoor Hockey Club’s Instagram page has increased by more than 1,000 followers this year, most of whom are from the U.S, where Frykas plans to take his docs-series next.

“It’s been re-affirming and, as cliché as it sounds, to follow your heart.”–Randy Frykas

During his travels, Frykas visited a prospective interview subject in Duluth, Minn., home to another bustling hockey scene. He’s also received calls from as far as Czechia and Finland about telling stories in European communities.

“Right now, I’m trying trying to let it be what it might become. I’m not trying to force it,” Frykas said, adding he’d like to make a film as long as an hour about outdoor hockey in the next two years.

“It started in Canada because that’s where I’m from and that’s where outdoor hockey is huge, but what I noticed… is this is bigger than just Canada,” he said. “There’s so many more people to meet and stories to find and rinks to skate on, so there’s no end in sight, that’s for sure.”

joshua.frey-sam@freepress.mb.ca

X: @jfreysam

“There’s so many more people to meet and stories to find and rinks to skate on, so there’s no end in sight, that’s for sure.”–Randy Frykas