Chasing Ice
Sundance film number four.
This was actually a bit of a pleasant surprise. Courtney and I ended up exchanging our tickets for a movie we weren't really all that excited to see for a roll of the dice, netting TBA tickets for Sunday night at 6PM. The idea is that they slot award winners into various times and venues throughout the day on Sunday. You buy your ticket for a venue and a time and hope you get something you're interested in seeing. Courtney and I were hoping to hit a home run by snagging tickets to a movie we badly wanted to see but couldn't score tickets to. Well, that dice roll backfired- to a degree- when we discovered on Saturday night that we were holding tickets to Chasing Ice. On the downside, it wasn't one we were hoping to see... actually we had pretty much ignored documentaries in general when sifting through the list of movie offerings. On the upside, Chasing Ice did win the Outstanding Cinematography award for U.S. documentaries. We were pretty much guaranteed a gorgeous looking film. But I have to admit, I was a bit surprised by how great a film it actually was.
Roll Call: Photographer James Balog. Jeff Orlowski, director.
What's It About: In short: climate change. In a slightly longer and better way of putting it: how climate change effects glaciers and what that change means. Nature photographer James Balog embarked on a five-year (and counting) project to photograph climate change via its effect on glaciers around the world. Balog was interesting in providing images to accompany the projections, stats, and figures that dominate the current climate change discussion. He succeeded to both a gorgeous and terrifying effect.
What About It: Let me start off by saying that it definitely lived up to its award. Holy shit did it look incredible. At times, it was hard to believe the images on screen were merely scenes captured in nature. I had never seen anything like it. Glacial landscapes in and of themselves are absolutely compelling, but as seen through the incredible photography of Balog and the camera work of Orlowski it took on another incredible dimension. Like I said, I've never seen anything like it, and it'd be hard to top that level of beauty and majesty... particularly when you're talking about ice.
This, however, isn't merely an art display. Balog and company are documenting the change for a reason. Balog- through his Exteme Ice Survey project- was hoping to show the tangible effect of climate change. Balog set roughly 25 cameras up at different glaciers in Alaska, Montana, Greenland, and Iceland. After a few initial stumbles, Balog and company perfected the technology- which had to withstand some of the most extreme weather conditions in the world- to the point where they were able to document every day in the life of these glaciers for three to four solid years. Through the use of time lapse photography, Orlowski unveils the gorgeous and chilling fruits of Balog's considerable labor. Anyone who wants to deny that climate change is a real problem will have a tough time explaining why these glaciers are retreating in three to four years at a rate that eclipses their total erosion from the past 100 years. To watch these mammoth forms recede so quickly and simply right in front of my eyes was incredible (even, again, if it looked spectacular)- and eye-opening. Balog doesn't hammer home the implications of these massive glaciers melting away in to the sea- opting only to mention that unless meaningful change happens, the resulting rise in sea-levels worldwide will end up displacing roughly 130 million people in his daughters' lifetimes. It's hard to argue with these notions when you can actually see the incredible amount of water rushing off the melting glaciers into the sea and you can see the huge chunks off ice breaking off to melt away in the distant oceans. The proof is in the photographic/videographic pudding.
Beyond displaying the insights of this extremely ambitious project, Orlowski also wisely casts an eye on Balog himself. The photographer proves to be an interesting subject in and of himself. He provides insights on how and why he takes his photos and openly allows a glimpse of what it would take to be a photographer of his caliber snapping the types of photos he captures. (To give an idea: very, very few people are cut out for this kind of work). Balog actually comes to the project from an interesting place as well. He didn't initially see himself as an advocate for climate action; he viewed himself more as an interested nature photographer, a passive observer. He simply was curious to see what was happening with these glaciers. Was climate change a real concern? He was hoping to capture some manner of evidence that something was or wasn't happening with the ice- though he had some idea that the rise in temperatures was having an effect on the glacial landscapes, he was genuinely surprised by the dramatic extent of this change. Even after years of working on the EIS project, Balog admits that the devastation that is happening to the glaciers is incredible from a photographer's stand point, but horrifying from the average human vantage. While the results of his work may leave some room for debating the cause of the climate change, his documentations provides no opportunity to question whether the climate is having a detrimental effect on the world. He lays it all out there. And, again, it's scary.
I suppose some folks could argue that the beauty and scale of Balog's photographs and Orlowski's video footage actually have a negative effect on the finished documentary. After all, documentaries are meant to make a point and the overpowering and truly magnificent images could- I suppose- serve to overwhelm and, indeed, swallow the point the movie is trying to make. This is, of course, a ridiculous claim. Having experts with the eye for finding the right image can only enhance the arguments they are making. Climate change and its effect is dramatic business and Balog and Orlowski capture both the beauty and the grimness of this drama perfectly. Why should such documentation be clinical or simple? The imagery captures your attention; you want to know what is behind it the change, you want to understand why its happening. The images just keep steadily guiding the narrative.
Bottom Line: It was a fantastic movie, plain and simple. Balog and Orlowski's work is nothing short of breathtaking and they manage to move beyond the petty arguments and semantics that bog down climate debate and show tangible effects. In some ways, I'd argue that this is the perfect companion to An Inconvenient Truth. Where Al Gore argued with projections, statistics, and computer models- in an illuminating and informative way-, Balog and Orlowski trade in emotion and imagery. Taken together, the two films should serve as all the rallying cry we need to begin to earnestly tackle this issue. Unfortunately, I worry that the only way people are going to be moved by the movie is to move to the exit afterward while talking about how scary everything they just saw is. Viewing, after all, is a passive event, doing something about it requires action, and action requires some deep-seeded inspiration. I do have to mention that both Orlowski and Balog were available for Q&A following the screening. The question of what types of things can average people do was brought up. Orlowski proved to be incredibly eloquent in his reply. He didn't urge everyone to buy less bottled water or invest in a hybrid car. He simply suggested the following three ways you could help: let your Congress people know that this is an issue that concerns you, spread the word about what you saw and try to convert one skeptic, and, of course, give a donation to their cause so they can continue to prove the type of evidence seen in the movie and work on convincing the powers that be to commit to impactful discussions. Simple and potentially effective. It's a start. So, I guess I'll do my part and urge you all to give the film a chance. Come for the excellent and beautiful imagery, stay for the opportunity to learn. It's a winning proposition. Just like the film.
Grade: A
One More Thing: Chasing Ice was preceded by a short film entitled Song of the Spindle. Allow me to give you a thumbnail sketch of the film. A roughly sketched dude and whale have a conversation about their similarities and differences. You learn all about whales and a few things about the human species as well. The end result is that the whale suggests that the human world would be a better place if humans sang more. Yep. It was cute... and absolutely- in my mind- dumb, heavy-handed, unrealistic (the observations made therein, that is... obviously I'm not going to be questioning the realism of animated humans and whales conversing), and kind of a waste of time. But... again.. it was kind of cute.
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