“Antarctica: A Year on the Ice” – and very cool [MOVIE REVIEW]
Anthony Powell in Antarctica: A Year on Ice. Courtesy of Music Box Films
“Antarctica: A Year on Ice” is lots of different things but not what you’d expect. About to leave for Antarctica, I jumped at the chance to see this unique documentary. Expecting lots of flora and fauna, or at least what passes for that in a land where double digits below zero is more the norm than not, this is more about the intrepid humans who man the scientific stations than about the cuddly penguins waddling and skating down glaciers.
Home to the research facilities of several nations, each center is a base not just to the scientists measuring data and conducting experiments but also of the support staff – the electricians, firemen, carpenters, communications techs, IT specialists, chefs, cleaners, store clerks and accountants, to name just a few. It is a microcosm of the real world in a place that seems anything but real. It is considered to be the last pristine place on earth and that is one of the primary attractions for the individuals who live there six months a year. It is almost as if Antarctica is its own planet and the rest of the Earth is “the real world.”
In many cases the support staff who populate the research facilities are oddballs and, for the most part, they recognize themselves as such. As one woman noted, in the “real world” she has a hard time finding a place where she fits in but in Antarctica she has found a family of like-minded souls. This is where she is most comfortable.
But it is the winters of total darkness and -50° weather and 100 k/p/h winds that separate the men from the boys (or women from the girls) as the population of McMurdo and the surrounding facilities goes from 700 to less than 70. Winters bring gale force winds, privation, monotony and mental fatigue as nothing can land or dock during that season. Still, maintenance is necessary and those who stay must be up to the task. Few return for a second winter.
The surroundings are amazing. Nature, relatively untouched by Man, is at its most commanding and beautiful. Ice volcanoes rise from the ocean and the sea houses wondrous wildlife with multiple species of penguin, seals, whales and birds. There are strict rules dictating how close to the wildlife a human may wander; no one has given similar instructions to the penguins who will often times waddle over to a worker for a quick sniff. The rule is that nature is not to be interfered with, often with sad consequences as when a baby seal became disoriented in a snow storm and wandered away from the protective ocean toward the research buildings. Its rescue was forbidden.
“Antarctica: A Year on Ice” was the brainchild and project of communications engineer and New Zealand native Anthony Powell. When digital cameras became more reliable, Powell devised modifications that would allow him to film the area around him. Spending more than a decade in Antarctica, summers and winters, he was able to use time-lapse photography to capture his surroundings, including one time-lapse sequence that took five months to film. Aided by his wife Christine whom he met and married in Antarctica, Powell has successfully translated his experience so that the viewer has an idea of the isolation, the beauty and the camaraderie experienced by those who stay.
So come for the beauty and adventure of seeing nature’s last holy land but stay for the interesting and unusual story of individuals who brave isolation and privation to experience something that so few have ever felt.
Opened November 28 at the Landmark Nuart Theatre