Antarctica: A Year on Ice (2013)

People are voting emotionally.

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Blistering performances.

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.

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.

This informative and visually fascinating documentary centers on two themes primarily, and is set on the continent of Antarctica, which lies at the very bottom of our planet.First, the film gives us a rather intimate look at the people who venture there to live and work at McMurdo Station, the U.S. camp in Antarctica, and which is by far the largest of the some 30 international stations set up and protected by treaty.Secondly, the movie treats us to the spectacular celestial shows that occur there, as well as looks at Mt. Erebus, the southernmost active volcano on the globe, the Dry Valleys (considered by many to be closest to the topography of Mars), as well as some glimpses of the surrounding animal population, namely penguins and seals, who can survive the incredibly harsh conditions on the continent.Anthony Powell, who grew up on a dairy farm in New Zealand, directs, narrates, and often appears in the documentary (which was 10 years in the making), as he's a veteran of travel there, and whose job it is to set up radio communications in remote areas outside the camp. He allows the viewer to get a real feel of a full year in Antarctica, which basically has only two seasons summer and winter, with the incredibly stark contrasts between the two.Overall, this film gave me a strong sense of what it would be like to live and work there, and I found it to be an absorbing experience highlighted by nature and one of the very few areas in the world not yet changed by mankind.

There are several films that take place in Antarctica; however only a couple have focused on what it is like to actually live there. Like in Werner Herzog's documentary 'Encounters at the End of the World', the audience is introduced to several members of the support staff at McMurdo Station, Antarctica. However in Antarctica: A Year on Ice, we're not just seeing a snippet of time in their lives on a given day. We're seeing how they progress through an entire year – how they are affected by the 24 hours of summer sunlight, the unending darkness of a harsh winter, and the isolation. All of this is presented in the context of Nature, her ebbs and flows, power and beauty. Over the years Anthony Powell has perfected his ability to capture and condense images of Nature in a manner that allows the audience to appreciate her creations in a timely manner. Nature is just as much of a character in the film as the others; although one could argue a more visually stunning one. Where else in the world can you see auroras dancing over a backdrop of the Milky Way, a storm so powerful that you can barely close the door, or get the real poop on penguins?By the end of the film, Anthony Powell has led the audience through a year in Antarctica as experienced by the people who have been there and done that. It's much more than just a glimpse. It describes both an environment and a culture that very few are lucky enough and fortunate enough to experience first hand.