2013-09-09

20130909: Documentary Review--Terra Antarctica


Terra Antarctica, Re-Discovering the Seventh Continent
  1. American live action tv episode length film, 2009, NR, 49 minutes, spoken word is English.
  2. IMDB: 6.9/10.0 from 9 users
  3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No reviews yet,' and no audience ratings.
  4. Written and directed by Jon Bowermaster. 
  5. Stars Jon Bowermaster.
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  7. Ice.  Penguins.  Seals.  Broken ships from a century ago.  Ice.  Snow.
  8. The claim was that each winter, the size of Antarctica grows by 7 million square miles.
  9. Warming: average temperatures up 5 to 9 degrees over the last 50 years.  Rather imprecise.
  10. Warming means more snow, mostly wet snow, plus flatter light, which is bad for climbing.
  11. The stench of penguin guano.  Nice.
  12. The Chilean base is military personnel only, which is against the agreements made in the 1950s.
  13. Kayaking in waters with broken ice.  Accelerating total ice loss.  A ten day stretch of continual rain, which helps erode the glaciers more quickly.
  14. The UK, Chile, and Argentina have made new and conflicting claims on big portions of the continent.
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  16. Camera work: good; sound: good.  Screenplay: OK.  It's just that there is nothing new except the pictures.  Way too many pictures of old men in kayaks is not all that interesting.
  17. One sentence summary:  The pictures are worth seeing, but don't expect great content or any new outlook.
  18. Three stars of five.
  19. For a much better documentary, see 'Chasing Ice'

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