Chasing Ice (2012) [Blu-ray]
Documentary | Biography
In the spring of 2005, acclaimed environmental photographer James Balog headed to the Arctic on a tricky assignment for National Geographic: to capture images to help tell the story of the Earth's changing climate. Chasing Ice is the story of one man's
mission to change the tide of history by gathering undeniable evidence of our changing planet. Within months of that first trip to Iceland, the photographer conceived the boldest expedition of his life: The Extreme Ice Survey. With a band of young
adventurers in tow, Balog began deploying revolutionary time-lapse cameras across the brutal Arctic to capture a multi-year record of the world's changing glaciers. As the debate polarizes America and the intensity of natural disasters ramps up globally,
Balog finds himself at the end of his tether. Battling untested technology in subzero conditions, he comes face to face with his own mortality. His hauntingly beautiful videos compress years into seconds and capture ancient mountains of ice in motion as
they disappear at a breathtaking rate. Chasing Ice depicts a photographer trying to deliver evidence and hope to our carbon-powered planet.
Storyline: 'National Geographic' photographer James Balog was once a skeptic about climate change. But through his Extreme Ice Survey, he discovers undeniable evidence of our changing planet. In 'Chasing Ice,' we follow Balog
across the Arctic as he deploys revolutionary time-lapse cameras designed for one purpose: to capture a multi-year record of the world's changing glaciers. Balog's hauntingly beautiful videos compress years into seconds and capture ancient mountains of
ice in motion as they disappear at a breathtaking rate. Traveling with a young team of adventurers by helicopter, canoe and dog sled across three continents, Balog risks his career and his well-being in pursuit of the biggest story in human history. As
the debate polarizes America and the intensity of natural disasters ramp up around the world, 'Chasing Ice' depicts a heroic photojournalist on a mission to gather evidence and deliver hope to our carbon-powered planet Written by
Anonymous
Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman on September 10, 2013 -- There is certainly no dearth of opinions on the subject of climate change or global warming or whatever you want to call it. Few subjects seem to get people's
dander up quite so completely as this touchy topic, one which doesn't just play upon our darkest fears of our personal mortality, but one which extends to the survival of the entire human race and perhaps our very planet. Believers in the findings of many
climate scientists tend to be at the very least incredibly concerned, and in some cases at least downright alarmist, tending to frame their arguments with notions indicating willful ignorance or simple blindness on the part of disbelievers. Those who tend
to be skeptical about any warming trend point to previous scientific claims of a new ice age which never materialized, as well as some supposedly duplicitous techniques by some scientists. This is one of those debates where one side is going to be right
and one side is going to be wrong, although if the global warming adherents turn out to be the correct ones, it may be too late by then for anyone to have time to gloat. Chasing Ice is resolutely "pro" global warming, if that's the right way to
term it, meaning that the people behind the documentary are absolutely convinced that global warming is real, the evidence is unmistakable and people need to perk up and pay attention, rather than merely giving the problem lip service. Those with a
tendency not to believe in climate change may still find some of the documentary evidence on display in Chasing Ice as at the very least disturbing, if not "direct evidence" that man made greenhouse gases are depleting ice fields in heretofore
unknown quantities. Those who do believe in climate change will find Chasing Ice a devastatingly sad and unsettling film, one which offers persuasive proof that something deadly is happening to our planet, and leaving the distinct
possibility that we may be too late to stave off some of the worst effects.
James Balog is the focal human at the center of Chasing Ice. This increasingly legendary nature photographer talks about his early efforts in the genre, where he quickly discovered that his disturbing photos of endangered species being killed,
maimed or harvested for pieces of their bodies didn't exactly meet with public acclaim, despite the worthiness of the subject. His intent has always been to show the interrelationship of Man and Nature, and when he finally decided to start examining our
planet's shrinking ice field, he felt he had hit upon an idea that would be both scenic and disturbing.
Balog's peculiar genius was to help found and implement what is known as the Extreme Ice Survey, or EIS for short. Balog set about installing time lapse cameras which finally were able to document the incredibly shocking retreat of some of the world's
largest glaciers. Chasing Ice's Jeff Orlowski evidently didn't originally have an idea to make a feature documentary out of this enterprise, and instead was along for the ride, but along with Balog and the rest of the EIS's crew slowly came to
realize that this was a story that needed the widest exposure possible.
What Chasing Ice ends up being, therefore, is both an environmental wake up call but perhaps just as compellingly a document of a devoted group's heroic efforts to overcome extreme environments and logistical nightmares in order to make the ice
survey a reality. The result is a combination of thrilling location photography, including some devastating "calving events" (when huge pieces of glaciers or ice floes break off and being melting into the sea), as well the hardships faced by Balog and his
crew, both technical (the early cameras don't work as promised) and personal (Balog has some health issues as the survey proceeds).
My hunch is that Chasing Ice will probably not sway those who are firmly in the "non-believer" camp when it comes to global warming, but I also have a strong hunch that even those folks may be momentarily distressed by some of the "calving events"
and stunning disappearances of glaciers which Chasing Ice documents. The ironic thing about this fascinating piece is that it is both lyrically beautiful and awesomely overwhelming, showing huge movements in Nature which hopefully don't
necessarily portend absolute calamity for our species and in fact the entire planet.
There's a fantastic song by the Brazilian singer-songwriter Ivan Lins called "Some Morning" which has a superb verse that reads in part:
At the table, there are children Look how tall they've grown Imagine my surprise No sadness in their eyes I grab the paper, read the headline It reads 'peace on earth' The same recurring dream
I have a somewhat less sanguine disposition than Ivan, and therefore a recurring dream I've had for the past few years has been a disturbing, albeit quite cinematic, scene where I see an urban wasteland overrun with tumbleweeds and dead vegetation,
with not a living soul to be found, through which blows a crumpled piece of newspaper. I bend down and see that it's a back page of some daily rag containing a smallish article detailing fears of catastrophe due to climate change. This may only be
the atavistic rumblings of a disturbed, overly sensitive, subconscious, one which obviously is concerned we're ignoring signs of an impending catastrophe, but when I see a film like Chasing Ice, it at least confirms the fact that this growing
unease many of us feel may be anchored in undeniable and verifiable data. Highly recommended.
[CSW] -4.2- I found the most interesting fact in the whole presentation was the correlation between atmospheric carbon dioxide as found trapped in the ice cores and the corresponding rise and fall of global temperatures, the last part of which showed that
the current atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are off the chart. I was also fascinated with problems they had with developing the mechanisms for taking very long time period time-laps photography. Of course there was also the fantastic and visually
stunning photography both direct and time-laps of the ice itself and how global warming is melting away the glaciers. It was powerful but not preachy what-so-ever. Make up your own mind on climate change, but it is clear by what you are seeing. This
should be a one-time must-see film for everyone.
[V3.5-4.0A] MPEG-4 AVC - No D-Box.
º º