Canada's national past time isn't just a game; it brings families and friends together. That's what one local cinematographer wanted to capture in his short documentary.

Eric Penner and Isaiah Kleinsasser have been friends since meeting at Stonewall Faith Academy in grade six. Penner, originally from Argyle, started making movies in grade eleven with Kleinsasser for his school's chapel.

Both men are now high school graduates and Penner has continued to make movies while working on his family farm.

He was trying to figure out what to do next for a project when he thought about trying to capture something about Canada. And what better way to capture Canadiana than to film than the national winter sport, hockey.

Kleinsasser, who is in university, has made a backyard hockey rink for many years, so Penner asked if he could come film it there. 

"I spend in the fall a couple hundred hours making it," Kleinsasser laughed. He says, with five siblings, a hockey rink is the best way to get them out of the house in winter.

The video started as a short film but turned into more of a documentary when he arrived and saw the Kleinsasser family playing together.

"As I went and I saw (Kleinsasser) playing with his brothers and all his family, I thought 'you know what, I'll make this into a full-blown documentary,'" Penner explained. "It's a really special thing that they got there, so I want to capture it the best way I know how."

Family is very important to Kleinsasser. He says it's a family goal of theirs to always fight for each other and hockey is one way that they do that, whether it's in the backyard, or his father taking his kids on 'dates' to Winnipeg Jets games.

Penner said that really came through, especially when he started piecing all the film together.

"I was watching and I had a tear in my eye," he said. "That's not staged whatsoever, this is just them."

The next short documentary from Penner may be about life on his farm, which he wants to capture before he moves out on his own.