Professional hockey player, activist,
entrepreneur, and Scotiabank Teammate, Akim
Aliu named as Associate Producer
TORONTO, Aug. 25,
2022 /CNW/ - Scotiabank today announced a new
collaboration with athlete empowerment brand UNINTERRUPTED
Canada, a subsidiary of
Good Karma Productions, as presenting sponsor of their
original documentary feature, BLACK ICE. The full
length film will make its international premiere at the
Toronto International Film
Festival (TIFF) in September. This new sponsorship is part of
Scotiabank's hockey for all initiative, focused on
promoting diversity and inclusion throughout the game. The
film will explore the journey of Black hockey players from the
creation of The Colored Hockey League of the Maritimes to the
modern-day NHL, highlighting their often overlooked and
marginalized contributions to the game.
hockey for all is Scotiabank's effort to
drive diversity, equity, and inclusion in the sport, by
concentrating on two distinct areas of focus: cultural and
financial. The platform – introduced at the start of the
2021-22 NHL® regular season – supports programs that focus on
increasing diversity among community and grassroots hockey
organizations across Canada.
"At Scotiabank, we want our hockey for all initiative to
ignite the conversation around diversity and equity in hockey in
order to encourage positive change, and make the game more
welcoming and inclusive," said Laura Curtis
Ferrara, Chief Marketing Officer at Scotiabank. "We are
thrilled to partner with UNINTERRUPTED Canada as the Presenting
Sponsor of BLACK ICE to help share the stories of a community that
is so often overlooked in the history of the game."
"When exploring a culturally significant and challenging subject
like the role of race in hockey, allyship is extremely important,"
said Vinay Virmani, Chief Content
Officer of UNINTERRUPTED Canada. "I can think of no
better partner than Scotiabank, who have been corporate
trailblazers in the sports diversity and inclusion space, to join
us in sharing this important story."
In addition to the sponsorship, UNITERRUPTED Canada has brought
on athlete, activist, entrepreneur, and Scotiabank Teammate,
Akim Aliu as Associate Producer on
the project.
Aliu is the co-founder of the Hockey Diversity Alliance
(HDA) and is an outspoken champion of diversity within hockey
and enabling accessibility regardless of common barriers such as
race, gender, or economic background.
Elevation Pictures will oversee theatrical distribution of
BLACK ICE in Canada. The
film is produced in association with First Take Entertainment with
support from Telefilm Canada, Canadian Media Fund and Ontario
Creates. Bell Media will deliver the premiere of the
documentary exclusively to Canadian viewers on TSN, Crave, and CTV
platforms.
About Scotiabank
Scotiabank is a leading bank in the Americas. Guided by our
purpose: "for every future", we help our customers, their families
and their communities achieve success through a broad range of
advice, products and services, including personal and commercial
banking, wealth management and private banking, corporate and
investment banking, and capital markets. With a team of over 90,000
employees and assets of approximately $1.3 trillion (as
of July 31, 2022), Scotiabank trades on the Toronto Stock
Exchange (TSX: BNS) and New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: BNS). For
more information, please
visit http://www.scotiabank.com and follow us on
Twitter @ScotiabankViews.
About UNINTERRUPTED
Canada
UNINTERRUPTED Canada, a
subsidiary of Good Karma Productions, is co-led by CEO
Scott Moore and Chief Content
Officer Vinay Virmani, in
partnership with Drake, is the first international
expansion of the athlete empowerment brand, UNINTERRUPTED,
founded by LeBron James and Maverick Carter. The company
is built upon the radical idea that all athletes should have a
platform to express themselves without intermediaries. From this
premise, a mission was born: to empower athletes from all walks of
life to communicate in an unimpeded way and to be More Than an
Athlete. UNINTERRUPTED is upending the world of sports media by
working with athletes to tell unique, human stories from their
point of view. Through content, products, events, partnerships, and
educational opportunities, UNINTERRUPTED is changing the way
athletes engage with the public and empowering them to be known and
valued for more than the sport they play.
https://www.instagram.com/uninterruptedcanada/
https://twitter.com/uninterrupted
https://www.facebook.com/Uninterrupted/
https://www.youtube.com/uninterrupted
SOURCE Scotiabank