Chasing Ice

Synopsis: National Geographic photographer James Balog sets out to document the shrinking of glaciers. This turns out to be a herculean effort of both technical and physical endurance.

The unfortunate thing about this film is that not many people will see it and even more that the people who most need to see it most definitely will not see it. It’s an issue film and just as Promised Land is only going to appeal to those concerned about fracking, Chasing Ice is only going to appeal to those concerned with global warming. It’s a shame, because this isn’t just a film about an issue, it’s evidence. Cold, hard, incontrovertible evidence that glaciers are melting at an unnatural rate. If anyone argues the point, you can just ask them to explain why giant glaciers have vanished in the space of just a few years.

The nature of a documentary film means that you know what it’s about before you go into it. Perhaps this is something that documentary makers should think more about.  Take something like Million Dollar Baby for instance. A late-round sucker punch transformed what appeared to be a feminist Rocky Balboa yarn into a searching examination of the intersection between human dignity and assisted suicide. That pissed a lot of people off, since it wasn’t how the movie was sold. But theoretically at least, it made people think about an issue they hadn’t previously considered. I don’t see how you could do that with a film about global warming, but I wonder about how you get people who are so insistent on denying the existence of the phenomenon to look at cold hard facts such as are presented so tellingly here.

Chasing Ice is a well-made documentary, full of gorgeous vistas. Ice has rarely looked as spectacular and engaging as this. It’s just a shame not more people will see it.

 

 

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