On this episode of WWJ In Depth, we meet some people on the front lines of documenting the scrappy nature of small business while reaching out to help that community. Also, host Rob St. Mary talks to the creator of the award-winning Red Wings documentary “The Russian Five” about some things to watch during the pandemic.
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HELPING SMALL BUSINESSES THROUGH A PANDEMIC
Since 2013, the PBS show START UP has been connecting would be entrepreneurs with stories of those who have dreamed of starting their own small businesses. Now, host/producer Gary Bredow and producer/casting director Jenny Feterovich are working out what Season Eight of the Metro Detroit produced show will look like while creating a deeper community for small business people online as they workout just what entrepreneurialism looks like now and after the pandemic.
“The mom & pop shops, that’s all they ever dreamt of doing, they put their whole entire life savings (into it), this was their dream, they were employing people in their community. This is what’s going to get gutted. It’s soul crushing,” said Feterovich.
Meanwhile, host Gary Bredow said, for him, there’s a reality of the financial issues. But, there’s also psychological barriers that all of us will carry with us even after the “stay home” orders fall in Michigan and across the country.“I don’t foresee a time where I’m excited to book a cruise or hop on a plane or go to a restaurant or do anything like that and I don’t think I’m alone in that feeling,” said Bredow.
It’s safe to say that if it weren’t for five hockey players from the former Soviet Union, the Detroit Red Wings would have been called the “Dead Wings” a bit longer.
Instead, the players known collectively as the Russian Five helped to bring the Stanley Cup to Detroit in the 1990s and helped to change the way other teams in the NHL looked at talent from that country.
Joshua Riehl is a Detroit-based filmmaker and the creator of “The Russian Five” – an award-winning documentary capturing the story behind this piece of sports history. It’s a documentary that feels, at times, like a buddy comedy as well as an international spy thriller.
“The philosophy (of the film) being that if we hook you with the story of the defections and this challenge of how do we rebuild this franchise, first… if you’re not a hockey fan, by the time we give you hockey you’re already buckled in and ready to go. If you are a hockey fan, you’re going to wait through that first 25 minutes to get to the hockey. If we do that, it’s win-win, either way,” said Riehl.
“The Russian Five” had screenings worldwide at film festivals, in theaters, and is now available to watch at home from various streaming and download platforms.
As for what he’s watching and listening to Riehl said it’s been the "Star Wars: Clone Wars" animated series, foreign films such as "The Seventh Seal", "Simon of the Desert" and “Heimat” as well as re-watching the Canadian sketch show "The Kids in the Hall" and the latest album from Fiona Apple titled "Fetch the Bolt Cutters” have been giving him things to think about during the outbreak.
Watch the trailer for “The Russian Five” here:
More at https://twitter.com/russianfivefilm.