China Heavyweight

 Drew and I with coach Qi Moxiang

Chasing Ice - Epitome of Documentary

Jans, you bring up a good point about preferring a "purely poetic documentary" and I think I may have preferred one as well—but only because I am aware of the reality of global warming/climate change. I don't necessarily need a person (Balog) there to bring that humanistic relation to the photographic evidence, which is what I think Orlowski could have been trying to do when he focused on Balog’s knee injury and family. 

  

Since it was emphasized that people don't believe in climate change, making Balog the main character seems to have tied the nature in, in a way that people would actually believe his photographs and believe climate change is real—rather than just seeing pictures of ice (or lack of) in a National Geographic magazine. The results of Balog’s project are indeed magnificent, but the film was about Balog’s survey project and how his project is the story of nature. If he wasn’t the focus, I don’t think people who see this film would have the opportunity to realistically experience a type of intimate connection that humans and nature possess--and, those who are in denial about the issue may not have the chance to change perspective if the story was not told from Balog's perspective.

I do think Chasing Ice is my favorite film so far. I also think that from my own opinion of documentary, Chasing Ice is the epitome of it. There is a clear story here with a distinct beginning, middle and end. It’s a story about how these images were captured and why.

This is the way I see it: (Beginning/issue) People don’t believe climate change, but Balog notices ice retreat and wants to photograph it to aware the public; (Middle/conflict) First 6 months into project are a waste, camera’s timers don’t work, had to figure out what was wrong and how to fix them; (End/resolution) Made new software for camera, second round of photos worked, beautiful yet frightening pictures were captured, and now the visuals can bring the public awareness on our reality. Project is a success.