Antarctica: A Year on Ice

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.

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.

I feel like I learned so much about living on the continent, something most docs never really show(at least human life).

Although subjects like the interaction between humans and other animals on Antarctica were very quickly touched upon, the imagery from the filmmaker told a story he didn't need to share with words.

It was so beautifully shot by Antony Powell whose 13 years living on the ice met he knew his subject well enough to capture every thing the Terran is.

I love the fact that the movie starts out with the section of Antarctica not always fully covered in ice. I knew it existed but It's always weird when it's mentioned (or seen). It sets the tone that your going to learn something new from this doc, and I did.

I got a feel of what it's like to live in the arctic from people from all walks of life who do it year long. Not just scientist and military types,but regular people like fire men and store clerks (who run convenient stores on Antarctica). Living with each other in the most isolated place imaginable.

I got to see what I've only read about, like the four mouths of never ending darkness after the four mouths of never ending sunlight. The monstrous weather. I got so see what these conditions do to humans like a brain freeze that makes you loose your track of thought and how living through the harsh winter makes you interact with others who don't.

And of course we got to see penguins (and other animals as well).

It was just a beautifully shot and interesting documentary from a filmmakers personal experience. Fantastic!

Documentaries are definitely not for everyone. It takes a certain patience, curiosity and contemplation to watch the world living its ordinary life, just like it's the case with soap operas or reality shows that try to imitate the real life in vitro. And i consider myself lucky to be able to enjoy the documentaries, since it really is a unique genre that offers some unique experience to a viewer.

Honestly, i didn't expect too much from this film. In my experience with nature documentaries, one has to be both really big and really professional to shoot a truly decent documentary, that is why i absolutely adore the BBC films with David Attenborough, moderately accept the Discovery and National Geographic products and am outright sceptical about everything else. And this movie had that amateur indie feeling that in 99 cases out of 100 means that the outcome is bound to be mediocre.

To my big (and pleasant) surprise, this was that very "1 out of 100" exception. Yes, the movie is basically made by a single man, a time lapse photography enthusiast who spent several years working on a polar base in Antarctica. But the fact that we are being introduced to that vast and secluded icy world by someone who's not a stranger to it himself makes it a different experience entirely. Anthony "Antz" Powell doesn't simply look for some "fancy stuff" to film and later present to us. He actually lives through all these moments, and we are allowed to witness them, which makes this film a rather intimate experience.

It may sound silly, but another great thing about this movie is that it's not just about Antarctica. Though it does share with us the amazing beauty of its pristine nature, it doesn't sell Antarctica as the main and only star. After all, this huge frozen world can be equally beautiful and depressing. Instead, we look at this continent and the life that managed to bind itself to it through the eyes of the fellow workers, people who spent months, or even years, there doing their job and whose impression of Antarctica and the way humans interact with it is the most honest and true.

It's probably not very groundbreaking, but illustrating life in Antarctica with simple people's lives and experiences makes this movie really heartfelt. It is a documentaty, but you invest yourself emotionally into it, you care about the people shown in it, follow their stories, connect to their problems, feelings and dreams. This removes restraints between you and the objects shown in the movie, making you more than just an impassive spectator, almost like a friend to those people. You do not simply consume facts or imagery, as the so-so documentaries offer you to do, you actually live through them.

Maybe i'm fooling myself, but 'Antarctica: A Year on Ice' gave me a bit of a feeling of actually spending a year there. And what it is if not a sign that the film did its job well?

This film by Anthony Powell shows us what it is like to spend a year in Anarctica. The winters are killer! The temperature goes to -40 degrees and winds blow at 100 mph. The sun disappears for 4 months at McMurdo Station. This film is not about scientists. It is about the people who work at the base and keep it functional. We get inside their heads. There are folks who fell in love with the place and can't seem to get enough of it. There are others who wonder if they did the right thing by coming here. I actually found myself wanting to spend some time in Anarctica even while knowing it will never happen. The stars of the southern sky are compelling and, of course, everybody loves penguins!