ANTARCTICA. A YEAR ON ICE

“Filling the ... screen with stunning time-lapse vistas of Antarctica, and detailing year-round life at McMurdo Station and Scott Base, Anthony Powell’s documentary is a potent hymn to the icy continent and the heavens above. It is like nothing you’ve ever seen before.

“Powell has been a regular denizen since 1998 ... Determined to convey the primal splendour of the environment – and humanity’s tenuous foothold there – Powell, a self-taught photographer and film maker, designed and built camera systems that could function in the extreme cold of the Antarctic winter...

“The spectacular footage has been integrated with a pleasing lightness of touch into a fascinating often funny insider account of what it’s like to work and live and play on the ice. Seasoned workers – firemen, managers, technicians, the shopkeeper – consider the reasons they keep returning – or never want to leave. Social distinctions and psychological quirks are shrewdly observed: the winter-overs sheepishly admit the resentment they feel when the summer workers arrive with the return of the sun. Once you have seen the star-flooded mid-winter night sky above McMurdo you may well understand their sense of superiority.” - NZ International Film Festival 2013; http://www.nziff.co.nz/2013/archive/antarctica-a-year-on-ice/; 25/05/2015.