Glacial melt may hit the Oscars with the stunning, somber Chasing Ice

Enlarge / Svínafellsjökull, Iceland

James Balog, Extreme Ice Survey

There has been a growing buzz about a new climate change documentary Chasing Ice, which won a pile of film festival awards and is now on the Oscars short list (one of only 15 documentaries). I finally got the chance to catch it at a local theater and, although I went in with high expectations, I had them exceeded.

To be engaging, every story needs a protagonist. Most audiences would have a hard time identifying with an ice sheet or valley glacier no matter how beautiful. Instead, the documentary follows photographer James Balog on his quest to capture the response of the cryosphere to climate change, making it visually evident and compelling.

Balog became interested in photography while working on his master’s degree in geomorphology—the processes that shape landscapes. That interest blossomed into a very successful career as a photographer for the likes of National Geographic. Chasing Ice is the result of the Extreme Ice Survey project Balog started in 2007. The idea was to deploy cameras to a number of glaciers and compile high-quality, time-lapse imagery over long enough time periods to clearly see the glaciers melting back.