In this well-meaning but scattershot documentary from activist filmmaker Keli Price, the little-covered topic of discrimination—sexual, racial, and otherwise—in professional and Olympic sports is given a generalist bird’s-eye view in On Thin Ice. Although it’s admirable that Price wants to cover so much territory here in trying to spotlight as many individual athletes’ stories of overcoming discrimination and hardship to reach their goals, a bit more clarity and focus could have made this a much more compelling film. The initial impetus for Price’s doc was his passionate adherence to the promise of telling the tragic story of his great-grandfather, Jack Brooks, who was a top speed skater in the 1930s but barred from competing in the Olympics because he was a Polish Jew and not allowed citizenship. Price also relates the similar travails of Irving Jaffe, another Jewish speed skater who. although was able to compete in the Olympics, was the victim of constant anti-Semitic harassment from his own US teammates.
However, interestingly, the most discriminatory act against Jewish athletes was at the 1936 Berlin games, where the American Olympic Committee, in a despicable effort to appease Adolf Hitler, banned two top Jewish sprinters from competing in the 400-yard relay, a well-known high-profile event. From there Price’s film, in its zeal to be comprehensive in its scope, begins to overreach somewhat. On Thin Ice then jumps from one sport to the next with a series of subjects that all seem to ultimately get short shrift: discrimination against women and LGBT athletes, industry bias against sports figures who are politically vocal, and the still-conservative white-male power over sporting events and the athletes who compete in them. This could have been a fascinating film about the historical discrimination against Jews in sport alone, and even just focusing on Jaffe and Brooks’s stories would have made for a fascinating documentary. Unfortunately On Thin Ice spreads itself too thinly across too many sports and too many areas of potential interest. Optional. Aud: C, P.