Antarctica: A Year on Ice

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.

Watching Antarctica: A Year on Ice, you'll run out of superlatives to describe the experience. Then you'll start using them all again, in combination, and you'll still be unable to adequately describe what you've seen.

This masterpiece of a film was made by Anthony Powell, a Satellite Communications Technician working out of McMurdo Base, the United States station in Antarctica. It's obvious that the film was born of a deep passion for the place, which he and his wife Christine have returned to, whenever possible, year after year.

How do you share your thoughts about a place which defies description - a place vital to our planet, but which the vast majority will never see? Powell began by taking photographs, recording video, documenting life on the base, the idiosyncrasies of those who work there, and the beauty of the landscape. Over the years, whenever not working on the communications equipment he is responsible for, he's been working on techniques for gathering images in unusual and hostile conditions, often refining or even creating his own gear in order to capture the experience of living in Antarctica for a year.

The result is brilliant; by turns funny, terrifying and heartbreaking - but always awe-inspiring. It's not about the cinematography, (although the photography is frequently top-notch, and some of the time-lapse sequences are stunning,) and other than a few matter-of-fact mentions, nor does Powell delve into political or environmental debate. His purpose here is showing the audience what Antarctica is LIKE: how it feels to work there, what it really looks like, what happens there. His success in this endeavour is as superlative as the film.

See Antartctica: A Year on Ice in the cinema - on the biggest screen you can - and then just wonder at it.

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.

As someone with a longtime interest in polar exploration, I found this documentary enjoyable but not particularly special. I got halfway through, up to the point where Powell films a young seal, obviously lost and plaintively crying, crawling around by the base in apparent confusion. Presumably it has wandered far off course and is doomed to starve to death. Powell primly informs us that the rules forbid interfering with wildlife, then immediately loses interest and switches to a crew member complaining about the difficulty of keeping up with his family via email.

I don't know the circumstances, and I don't know precisely what small measures might have been taken to aid the stricken animal (offering it some food? Carrying it to the water? Putting it out of its misery?), but when it comes to this sort of decision -- providing some small humanitarian aid versus adhering to some idealized principle of "scientific detachment" (in the midst of a settlement constructed by humans) -- I think his refusal to help is needlessly cruel.

Several years ago I watched Werner Herzog's documentary "Encounters at the End of the World", and I know that I would be interested in this movie.

It's hard to say this movie is better. They are both similar, but the photographer in "Antarctica: A Year on Ice" had the time to think and explore and set up shots that are just out of this world. I feel like I had the wonderful experience of living in Antarctica and for that I am thankful to this movie.

I won't go on at length, because this is a movie that has to be experienced. I sadly notice that some people have rated this low and it is hard to believe. Were they forced to watch it? I can't figure out why other than they are just not ready in a place to experience this idea.

This would be a little like going to another planet or living in a generation ship, isolated from humanity and yet maybe feeling your humanity so much the more.

Great movie ... 10/10.