Our Team
Our team consists of dedicated film industry professionals and hockey experts, allowing our crew to be the most relevant and up-to-date team in the film industry.
Production Team
Paul Saltzman
Paul Saltzman is a two-time Emmy Award-winning, Toronto-based film and television director-producer known for over 300 productions. He's also known worldwide as an educator and mentor. After briefly studying Engineering Science, he did congressional civil rights lobbying in Washington, D.C., and voter registration work in Mississippi with SNCC in the summer of 1965.
In 1968-69 Saltzman assisted in the birth of a new film format as 2nd-unit director and production manager of the first IMAX film, produced for the Osaka 1970 World's Fair. In 1969, he attended the Woodstock Music Festival, later producing a Leonard Cohen concert tour as well as producing and directing his first film, a documentary on Bo Diddley. In 1973, Paul founded Sunrise Films. He produced, directed, and wrote many documentaries over the next decade, including the acclaimed series Spread Your Wings. In 1983, he turned to drama, producing and directing the premiere of HBO's Family Playhouse and a special for American Playhouse. In the same year, he co-created and produced the family action-adventure television series Danger Bay. The hit CBC-Disney Channel series ran for 6 years and 123 episodes. He has produced television series like My Secret Identity, Matrix and Max Glick, as well as miniseries and MOW's. He co-produced Map of the Human Heart, an international epic directed by Vincent Ward, starring Jason Scott Lee, Anne Parillaud, Patrick Bergin, John Cusack and Jean Moreau. He also executive produced Martha, Ruth & Edie as well as Sam & Me, which received an Honorable Mention in competition for the Camera d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. In 2008, he made his feature-film directorial debut with Prom Night in Mississippi, a documentary with Morgan Freeman, which premiered in competition at the Sundance Film Festival 2009 and was broadcast on HBO. His 2nd feature documentary, The Last White Knight-Is Reconciliation Possible? featuring Harry Belafonte, Morgan Freeman and Byron (Delay) de la Beckwith, Jr. premiered in 2012 at the Toronto International Film Festival. His most recent feature documentary is Meeting The Beatles in India.
In December 2011, Paul was invited to the White House to screen his prom movie and hold a Moving Beyond Prejudice discussion with the audience. While there, he was honoured as a Community Leader at a reception with President Obama and the Michelle Obama. Paul is a member of the Director's Guild of Canada and the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television.
Paul Clifford
To this day, Paul Clifford plays hockey. Born in Duluth, Minnesota, he played for Piedmont Heights before moving to Green Bay, Wisconsin. At Green Bay Southwest High School, he was captain of his football, hockey and track teams. Paul led Green Bay Southwest football in rushing his junior and senior years, and earned 1st Team All League for the Fox Valley High School Hockey League. He also set a school record as a member of the 4X400 meter relay track team in 1982, a record that still stands today. Paul later attended the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater where he played football and hockey. He was selected to the IWCHA All-Star hockey team and voted co-MVP and Most Valuable Forward his freshman year. His team won the league championship that same season.
Paul played semi-professional hockey for the DePere Deacons of the Badger State Hockey League, winning consecutive State Titles in 1985-86. He later graduated from the University of Wisconsin- Green Bay in 1987 and joined the Sherwin-Williams Company as a Manager Trainee in February of 1988. Paul became President and General Manager of Sherwin-Williams Canada in 2013 and later became President & GM of Sherwin-Williams Latin America.
THIEF RIVER: the movie...
In 2004, Paul received a copy of the book, River of Champions, from Jackie Poole and fell in love with the story of the Thief River Prowlers run to the state hockey championship in 1956. Earlier, Jackie Poole played for the Prowlers and then professionally for the Green Bay Bobcats. Jackie played for three US World teams, winning a bronze medal in 1962. Coincidently, Jackie Poole coached his own son, Nick, and Paul Clifford in high school hockey. Little did Paul know that he lived 6 houses away from Dennis Rolle, Jackie Poole's coach at Thief River. Paul also played youth hockey with Dennis Rolle's son Keith and was in the same class with Dennis's daughter, Nina. It seemed that he was meant to immortalize this hockey story. Only this time on the big screen. Paul later purchased the film rights to River of Champions. In 2016, he met Paul Saltzman and Tom Schlesinger and the rest is history. Paul is married to Rosario Martinez and together they have three children attending university. Their son Jake plays NCAA Division 1 hockey at Arizona State, and their daughters Inadia and Paulina attend Queens University in Kingston, Ontario.
Tom Schlesinger
I was on a pre-med scholarship at the University of Illinois when I first saw Midnight Cowboy, The Godfather, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Star Wars, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. These transformational films astonished me; they spoke to something deep inside and changed my life. I had found my lifework: to be involved in the magic of storytelling. So, I switched from pre-med to creative writing, and graduated with a Master's Degree in Film from UCLA.
I optioned my first two screenplays on an amazing early ride, sharing my scripts with Warren Beatty, Steve McQueen and Clint Eastwood. But when the scripts weren't made into films I went into despair. I attended a lecture featuring Hero with a Thousand Faces author Joseph Campbell, and that night triggered a life-long passion for the power of story to affect positive change in society. Through studies with Jean Houston, I made the single most important discovery of my storytelling career: that what we're experiencing emotionally as we're writing is what the characters are experiencing emotionally- and ultimately what the audience experiences when watching the film. Realizing that writers experience a parallel rite of passage with their characters led me to begin teaching human potential workshops at UCLA, the Esalen Institute, the California Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, and the Academy of Art in Munich.
My first two collaborations with filmmaker Carolin Link in Germany resulted in nominations for two Academy Awards, with Nowhere in Africa winning the Best Foreign Film Oscar in 2003. I was honored to work with renowned filmmaker Paul Saltzman on Prom Night in Mississippi, featuring Morgan Freeman, and The Last White Knight-Is Reconciliation Possible?, featuring Harry Belafonte-and both had great social impact, internationally.
So, I'd found my niche: combining narrative strategies with true stories. As if on cue, the next two films I'd be writing were powerful, transformational stories based on true events. Thief River, the Hoosiers of hockey, and Second Line West, the story of a single mother of four, who saved the lives of a number of troubled souls by guiding them toward spiritual solutions. As a result of these fortuitous collaborations, I've taught transformational storytelling to over 10,000 industry professionals at Pixar, Lucas film Deluxe Studios and the American Film Institute.
Consultants
Robb Stauber
1988 Hobey Baker Award Winner. NHL Goaltender and Head coach of the gold medal-winning U.S. Women's Olympic Hockey Team at the 2018 Winter Olympics - the first time the U.S. women captured Olympic Gold in the last 20 years.
Daniel Stauber
Played 4 years for University of Wisconsin-Superior: 2 years as captain and twice was its leading scorer. He also won a National Championship as a coach, with 259-148-58 record over 16 seasons.
James Stauber
Played 2 years at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. One of its leading scorers in 1980-1981. Coached women's hockey at the University of Wisconsin-Superior for 7 seasons. A former Minnesota Hockey Coach-in- Chief, military veteran with 29 years in the U.S. Air Force/Air National Guard.