Antarctica: A Year on Ice

I feel like I learned so much about living on the continent, something most docs never really show(at least human life).

Although subjects like the interaction between humans and other animals on Antarctica were very quickly touched upon, the imagery from the filmmaker told a story he didn't need to share with words.

It was so beautifully shot by Antony Powell whose 13 years living on the ice met he knew his subject well enough to capture every thing the Terran is.

I love the fact that the movie starts out with the section of Antarctica not always fully covered in ice. I knew it existed but It's always weird when it's mentioned (or seen). It sets the tone that your going to learn something new from this doc, and I did.

I got a feel of what it's like to live in the arctic from people from all walks of life who do it year long. Not just scientist and military types,but regular people like fire men and store clerks (who run convenient stores on Antarctica). Living with each other in the most isolated place imaginable.

I got to see what I've only read about, like the four mouths of never ending darkness after the four mouths of never ending sunlight. The monstrous weather. I got so see what these conditions do to humans like a brain freeze that makes you loose your track of thought and how living through the harsh winter makes you interact with others who don't.

And of course we got to see penguins (and other animals as well).

It was just a beautifully shot and interesting documentary from a filmmakers personal experience. Fantastic!

Powell's time-lapse cinematography, which seems to take up about half the running time, is astonishing - eerie, hypnotic and beautiful. This is a world very few will ever know firsthand - or want to - but Powell certainly reveals its beauties. The film is meant to be a chronicle, and there is no narrative per se. The last third of the film drags a bit here and there and some of the interviews get a tad repetitive. Those who like this will find Werner Herzog's "Encounters at the End of the World" an interesting contrast. Werner Herzog's focus is less on the place but the filmmaker's fascination with the people who go Antartica and their reasons for wanting to be there.

As it sits, right out of the box, this is a treat.

Documentaries are best when they project the passion of their creator and here we have a gentleman with infinite experience of living on the continent, a gentleman who even took the time and trouble to make his own camera equipment (that would work in the cold) and set out to capture the "experience" for those will never get it first hand.

Which is most of us.

Making heavy use of voice over (as opposed to head and shoulders interviews) this is a fun ride.

I can tell what would have made it perfect.

Since this is fundamentally a story about cold (people yes,landscape yes, but cold mainly) I would have loved to see a digital readout over every shot showing current temperature.

For example, when "summer" ends and the last plane is leaving, I saw people without outerware, dressed casual standing outside. I kept thinking, what was the temperature? In the next shot sequence a winter storm has set in which looks like it could freeze thoughts. What was the temperature then? Just a thought. Good movie. Recommended.

A documentary made through the lenses of Anthony Powell, photographer who spent many years in Antarctica lead you to the incredible journey to the world we really don't know much. The author describe just a portion of this amazing place over one year of time, combining short interviews, wonderful time lapse photography and just a glimpses of ordinary life of the small population that works on Antarctica. The movie opened many fascinating phenomena, from the mighty storms and winds, cold, 4 months in constant daylight and than darkness and the ways people adapts to those conditions, (T3 Syndrome, for example) which can really be a separate topics for more than one documentary.

Although the movie is not perfect, by my opinion, as it lack some inside to the geography of the place and at least some facts about the conditions there, it basically opened many more questions form me. This movie and its amazing topic with conditions where it was filmed basically don't give you the space to moan about imperfection that surely exists. Instead, it make you wondering about all what is seen, with a feeling that you would like to see much more.

As someone with a longtime interest in polar exploration, I found this documentary enjoyable but not particularly special. I got halfway through, up to the point where Powell films a young seal, obviously lost and plaintively crying, crawling around by the base in apparent confusion. Presumably it has wandered far off course and is doomed to starve to death. Powell primly informs us that the rules forbid interfering with wildlife, then immediately loses interest and switches to a crew member complaining about the difficulty of keeping up with his family via email.

I don't know the circumstances, and I don't know precisely what small measures might have been taken to aid the stricken animal (offering it some food? Carrying it to the water? Putting it out of its misery?), but when it comes to this sort of decision -- providing some small humanitarian aid versus adhering to some idealized principle of "scientific detachment" (in the midst of a settlement constructed by humans) -- I think his refusal to help is needlessly cruel.