The award-winning environmental film directed by James Balog opens today in the UK. Balog was skeptic about climate change but through his Extreme Ice Survey for National Geographic, he changes his mind in the face of undeniable evidence.
The director makes use of time-lapse cameras to capture a multi-year record of the world’s changing glaciers. I haven’t seen the movie myself, but praise on the beautiful glaciers is universal. Sadly what we see is years compressed into seconds to capture ancient mountains of ice in motion disappearing at a mind-blowing rate due to climate change.
The UK press has showered the movie with praise. “If any film can convert the climate-change skeptics, Chasing Ice would be it: here, seeing really is believing,” said The Guardian while The Times noted that “this Oscar-shortlisted picture is starkly beautiful, alarming and important.”
Hopefully it will draw a large audience and educate them about the need to change their habits to preserve the planet, such as generally consuming less, eating plants instead of animal products and supporting alternative energy such as solar and wind.
Article by Antonio Pasolini, a Brazilian writer and video art curator based in London, UK. He holds a BA in journalism and an MA in film and television.
