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Also Known As: - |
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| Year of first release: 2012 | |
| Director: Jeff Orlowski | |
| Actors: James Balog, Svavar Jónatansson, Jeff Orlowski | |
| Country: USA | |
| Genre: Documentary | |
| Conditions of visioning: 12.01.2014, Schauburg, followed by discussion with polar scientists from Alfred-Wegener Institute | |
| Synopsis: The movie follows National Geographic photographer James Balog across the Arctic as he deploys time-lapse cameras designed for one purpose: to capture a multi-year record of the world's changing glaciers. | |
| Review: The experiment is explained from the project viewpoint. This way it is understandable to anyone what is the goal, what are the means and the different difficulties are also explained. All accompanied by the great pictures and often photos (better quality than video) of the glaciers. The difficulties of the experiment and also the engagement of James Balog built a kind of suspense to the movie as well. The time lapse are long expected and come at the very end. The preparation of the experiment is good to have before to get prepared. Because the time lapses are so impressive and astonishing that I needed the afternoon to recover. It is not easy to see any parent dying and these glacier felt like parents to me but actually more to the humanity. Since decades other organisations like Greenpeace try to put the issue of global warming on the Climate summits using sometimes already pictures of famous glaciers in early 1900s and early 2000s. The movie showing time lapse over the recent years breaks completely the believe of a normal situation. It is impressive that in 10 years happens what usually took ten-thousands of years in the Earth history. I wonder whether it is possible to support this kind of visualisation of science for good and urgent purposes such as global warming. It is indeed a pity that Europeans are not involved and never make this kind of movie, while we have plenty of possibilities, Greenland, Norway, Svalbard are in Europe. The Alps have or had plenty of glacier. After the movie the discussion with polar scientists made clear that the movie is not fake, that the situation is urgent, that we cannot really predict what is going on, that everyone needs to do something at its level, like saving energy, goods (costing energy indirectly), stopping generation of energy with coal (as Germany, China and India do). |
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Rating: 8 /10
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More than entertainment, an Art.
Sunday, January 12, 2014
Chasing ice (2012)
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This sounds really interesting, especially as I like shooting time-lapses myself. The movie plays only on Sunday mornings but I have to manage to go see it.
ReplyDeleteExactly! I thought about you by watching the time-lapses. And it gave me some ideas...
ReplyDeleteI found the motivation to wake up after a very short night in order to go and see this movie for its last projection in Munich, at the ARRI Kino on 19/01/14. It was a great experience. The cinema room was spacious and the screen large and bright. The best conditions to appreciate in particular the beautiful pictures of glacier which are better looking than the time-lapses for me. But as you explain, the interest of the time-lapse is not in their graphic quality but in what they imply.
ReplyDeleteI also liked the way the movie is edited, showing us the work behind making the time-lapses, and also elements of discussion about global warming. What impressed me most are the videos of pieces of glacier the size of the Manhattan island breaking apart and tipping over: Awesome! I would rate 7/10 this excellent documentary.
It also gave me some time-lapse ideas, check this one out.