Chasing Ice
Director: Jeff Orlowski
Featuring: James Balog, Svavar Jonatansson, Adam LeWinter
Rating: 4/5
2012 has been a great year for documentaries and that trend continues this week with Chasing Ice.
The movie marks the feature length directorial debut from Jeff Orlowski has he makes the transition from short projects.
Chasing Ice is the story of James Balog'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.
Battling untested technology in subzero conditions, he comes face to face with his own mortality.
The debate about climate change has been raging in the U.S. for many years with many not ready to accept that this planet is going through major changes that will have huge implications on us and how we live.
Never before has there been proof that the ice regions of this planet were diminishing until now as Balog delivers proof that something has to be done to halt this process.
Chasing Ice is the most important documentaries of the year and while it does deliver a rather dire and depressing message it is a stunningly beautiful movie.
Orlowski has captured the baron and desolate landscapes so wonderfully that they become a character themselves - it really does become a bit of a visual adventure.
But at the heart of this movie is James Balog who battled for years and years to get the proof he needed to prove his point.
He is a man of huge courage and dedication and you cannot help but be inspired by his steadfast commitment to the cause.
But Chasing Ice is an much a character piece as it is an environmental as this movie looks at Balog and just what he has sacrificed - mainly time with his family - to complete the task that he had set himself.
This is not a movie that bamboozle you with science, charts and jargon it is a film that just lets the images that they capture do the talking - and boy are they powerful pictures.
Jeff Orlowski demonstrates that he is a very visual filmmaker with this film and he really has captured some very beautiful and captivating images.
When the credits roll you will be left without any doubt that climate change is a real problem and urgent steps need to be taken - this is a movie that you shouldn't miss.
Chasing Ice is out now