Antarctica: A Year on Ice

2013
PG
1h 31m

IMDb RATING

7.6/10

3.8K

YOUR RATING

ANTARCTICA: A YEAR ON ICE is a visually stunning journey to the end of the world with the hardy and devoted people who live there year-round. The research stations scattered throughout the continent host a close-knit international population of scientists, technicians and craftsmen. Isolated from the rest of the world, enduring months of unending darkness followed by periods when the sun never sets, Antarctic residents experience firsthand the beauty and brutality of the most severe environment on Earth. Capturing epic battles against hellacious storms, quiet reveries of nature's grandeur, and everyday moments of work and laughter, this unique documentary shows a steadfast community thriving in a land few humans have experienced. Using specially modified cameras and spectacular time-lapse photography, filmmaker Anthony Powell captures the splendor of the region like no film before. ANTARCTICA: A YEAR ON ICE gives testament to the planetÂ’s natural wonders, humanityÂ’s thirst for adventure, and the emotional extremes that accompany a year within the last pristine wilderness on the planet.

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A visually stunning chronicle of what it is like to live in Antarctica for a full year, including winters isolated from the rest of the world, and enduring months of darkness in the coldest ... Read allA visually stunning chronicle of what it is like to live in Antarctica for a full year, including winters isolated from the rest of the world, and enduring months of darkness in the coldest place on Earth.A visually stunning chronicle of what it is like to live in Antarctica for a full year, including winters isolated from the rest of the world, and enduring months of darkness in the coldest place on Earth.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.6/10

3.8K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 17 wins & 3 nominations

Trivia
The time-lapse sequence in the film of the ice pressure ridges changing shape took 5 months to capture, and lasts about 8 seconds on screen.

Quotes
Anthony Powell: There's a saying among the women of Antarctica, "The odds are good, but the goods are odd."

Connections
Follows Frozen Planet (2011)

User reviews29

Review

Featured review

He films a starving baby seal but declines to help it

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.