Wild Bill Ketelhut provides the "blog" to this anti-blog
Wild At Heart
While "Chasing Ice" is primarily about showing the dramatic impact of climate change through stop-motion photography by famed National Geographic photographer James Balog in various vistas in Alaska, Greenland, Canada, etc, it is more than that.
To start off, he was a skeptic about climate change but through his Extreme Ice Survey he found proof for himself that it truly exists. The film looks at him preparing his team and taking to a few experts but while it is all and good, that is not what I found captivating about this movie. I did like the bits were talking about improving the camera technology to fit the extremes of temperature but it doesn't get too technical. But this is the just the dressing for what makes this film special.
Balog has a wonderful eye and I was impressed by his nature series ANIMA which paired humans and chimpanzees focusing on their similarities and his Survivors series of endangered animals. So I must admit that I was interested in his vision of the ice fields and that is where this documentary excels.
The beauty of the ice fields is captured breathtakingly in this film from still shots of captivating ice flows to the time lapse photography showcasing retreated ice fields. Mere words cannot truly capture how moving I found this work which almost makes me wish the film followed more in the footsteps of "Winged Migration" or "Microcosmos" and stuck just with the visuals instead of the side stories.
Still, it is not too distracting and this is definately a film helped out by the big screen just to get a true sense of scale these glaciers have. This is truly a film of wonder about the ice. This film also made the short list of documentaries which will be under consideration for the Academy Awards so get ahead of the curve and see this majestic film. I give it a A-.
The movie opens at the Main Art Theatre in Royal Oak today.
