Film Archive
Welcome to the archive of previous PFF Selected Films.
Photo Credit: UCAR
Short Film (7:03); English
Join the CAESAR project team in Kiruna, Sweden and learn all about the day-to-day logistics of running an atmospheric science field project in the Arctic.
Contact: zietlow@ucar.edu
Medium Length Film (11:17); English
A group of eight high school girls spend a week in Alaska's Kenai Fjords National Park learning about glaciers, art, and themselves. Throughout Girls* in Icy Fjords, they not only develop and grow as scientists but also gain confidence in their outdoors skills.
Contact: achoi34@wisc.edu
Photo Credit: Alissa Choi
Photo Credit: Norbert Untersteiner and F. G. Van Der Hoeven/NSIDC
Medium Length Film (33:04); English
This film, produced by Frans Guus Van Der Hoeven and Norbert Untersteiner, documents life and research at Drift Station Alpha. Alpha was established during the International Geophysical Year between 1957 and 1958, and was the first long-term scientific base on arctic pack ice operated by a Western country. This footage gives us a rare look into the foundations of modern sea ice camps and research.
This is the copyrighted work of producers Norbert Untersteiner and Frans Guus van der Hoeven, and the NSIDC, being highlighted here for purposes of education and public information.
Photo Credit: Lianna Nixon
Short Film (5:08); English
Letters to the Arctic explores a complex collaborative narrative around our relationship to the Arctic and what’s at stake. This anthology of letters were collected from scientists, crew and personnel onboard the MOSAiC expedition, reading handcrafted letters in their preferred language. These letters explore what drives people to understand the Arctic and what it means to them, the planet, and people.
Contact: lianna.nixon@colorado.edu
Photo Credit: Mark Goldner
Short Film (9:05); English
In this video we explore the process of upwelling plumes at tidewater glaciers, and how this type of subglacial feature is connected to Arctic ecosystems. This video is part of a series of short educational videos about glaciers and was filmed in Svalbard, Norway during the summer of 2021. This is the result of a close partnership between science educator Mark Goldner and UMass Amherst professor Dr. Julie Brigham-Grette.
Contact: mgoldner3@gmail.com
Short Film (9:18); English
What does it take to become the first human to swim under the Antarctic ice sheet wearing nothing but a cap, goggles, and a speedo?
On the Edge follows endurance swimmer and UNEP Patron of the Oceans, Lewis Pugh, in his toughest swim ever.
Contact: miguel@go-dreamcatcher.com
Photo Credit: Lewis Pugh Foundation / K. Trautman
Photo Credit: Criosfericas
Medium Length Film (14:00); Spanish/English
"Paños de Agua Azul" is a short film that invites us to reflect on the importance of preserving our natural and cultural heritage. Through it, we discover a world where art and glaciological science intertwine to create works that move and inspire us.
"Paños de Agua Azul" is a chilean short film that invites us to reflect on the importance of preserving our natural and cultural heritage. Through it, we discover a world where art and glaciological science intertwine to create works that move and inspire us.
Contact: criosfericas@gmail.com
Photo Credit: Kitrea Takata-Glushkoff
Short Film (3:10); English
In the heart of Siberia, the world’s oldest, deepest lake, Lake Baikal evokes a powerful feeling that Buryats, Russians, and others have conveyed in their art, literature, spirituality, and science for thousands of years. Takata-Glushkoff embodies that feeling through place-based improvisational dance, honoring Baikal’s shapes, textures, and contours, along with its symphony of rumbling, creaking, and blowing snow-covered ice. Lake Baikal initially appears still and calm, but the 25-million-year-old continental rift zone dynamically sustains life for over 2000 endemic species through the water column 1600 meters beneath its frozen crust.
Contact: kitreatg@gmail.com
Medium Length Film (26:04); English
In the far north, the mighty Yukon river flows through Eric Nicolier's life. Mushing, rafting, carpentering, and playing music is Eric's way to composing his life of reverie.
Contact: diodiostudio@gmail.com
Photo Credit: Diodio Studio
Photo Credit: Angelo Odetti ©PNRA
Medium Length Film (17:17); Italian/English
Our film showcases the innovative use of the PROTEUS unmanned marine vehicle (UMV) during the XXXVIII Italian Expedition in Antarctica (2022-2023). Highlighting its versatility in extreme polar conditions, the film follows PROTEUS as it transitions between configurations to conduct vital scientific surveys in the Ross Sea, contributing valuable data to the global scientific community.
Contact: angelo.odetti@inm.cnr.it
Photo Credit: UCAR
Short Film (5:00); English
Sometimes cold air moves from the poles towards the equator as part of the global circulation of air around our Earth. This is called a cold-air outbreak (CAO) and they are common in mid-to high latitudes during winter. The cold air, when moving over open water, forms unique clouds, and can result in heavy snowfall and strong winds. Learn from the lead scientists of the CAESAR field project about CAOs and running a field project in Arctic Sweden.
Contact: zietlow@ucar.edu
Medium Length Film (12:00); Nepali/English Subtitles
Facing some of the grimmest climatic conditions 3500mts. and above the last family residing in the village of Darjeeling hills (India), across the Indo-Nepal border in the Himalayan region is dedicated to the age-old practice of yak herding. The documentary delves into unique cultural heritage and traditional livelihoods of indigenous Sherpa people in the Third Pole region. The film is a tribute to the perseverance and cultural significance of indigenous communities and their invaluable contributions to the global heritage.
Contact: yashikaelmo@gmail.com
Photo Credit: Nikhil Regmi
Photo Credit: Mark Goldner
Medium Length Film (11:12); English
This educational film explores how Ice Age geologic features in New England are directly connected to glacier systems in the Arctic. The video was shot in the summer of 2021 in Svalbard, Norway, and in various locations in New England. It is part of a video series which is the result of a close partnership between science educator Mark Goldner and UMass Amherst professor Dr. Julie Brigham-Grette.
Contact: mgoldner3@gmail.com
Photo Credit: Sullivan Fouquin
Medium Length Film (36:51); English
In the world's northernmost university center, follow Nele, Jorge, Aaro, Casimir, Tessa, Sullivan and the other students of this Arctic Geophysics course in their journey of measuring the glaciers Tellbreen and Blekumbreen. Will they be able to fulfill their mission despite the harsh conditions of Svalbard?
Photo Credit: Earthrise Studio
Short Film (7:55); English
Uninhabitable to humans, yet impacted by every action we take, today Antarctica stands at a crossroads. We are Antarctica takes a look at our history with the ice covered continent and invites us to reimagine our relationship with this great land and listen to the ancient wisdom of those fighting to protect our last wild areas. If Antarctica had a voice, what would she say?
Contact: viviencumming@gmail.com
Photo Credit: Criosfericas
Medium Length Film (14:00); Spanish/English
"Paños de Agua Azul" is a short film that invites us to reflect on the importance of preserving our natural and cultural heritage. Through it, we discover a world where art and glaciological science intertwine to create works that move and inspire us.
"Paños de Agua Azul" is a chilean short film that invites us to reflect on the importance of preserving our natural and cultural heritage. Through it, we discover a world where art and glaciological science intertwine to create works that move and inspire us.
Contact: criosfericas@gmail.com
Medium Length Film (25:06); French/English Subtitles
In the summer of 2022 a team left France with a folding trimaran to study long range pollution in East Greenland. This film is the journey of a skipper, a chemist and a filmmaker traveling between the nights and icebergs to collect samples and document the experience.
Contact: contact@arcticlab.fr
Photo Credit: Anne Beaugé
Photo Credit: Still from the film/Arctic Utopias Team
Viewing of this film requires a password: arctic_U21
Medium Length Film (21:52); Greek, Finnish, Yakutian/Sakha/English Subtitles
Arctic Utopias is a collective and experimental documentary film about the changing Arctic. Filmmakers were sourced through an Arctic wide-open call. Daniela, Lana and Matti were chosen as directors, as they represent a variety of viewpoints to the region’s future and status quo. The aim of the film was to be a platform for the voices stemming straight from the region – for stories of how the shifting of inner and outer worlds feels. Simultaneously the film invites the viewer to explore and question their relationship to the Arctic.
The Arctic is warming up to six times faster than the rest of the world due to climate change. At the same time, it's often represented as an exotic, romanticized and untouched place that is beyond the powers of the postmodern world. Experimentally and collectively - made during the Covid pandemic – this essayistic documentary film provided an opportunity to explore change as a concept, and challenge conventional ways of filmmaking and the representations of this region.
Contact: dtoma0906@gmail.com / arcticutopias@gmail.com
Photo Credit: USGS/Public Domain
Short Film (2:41); English
The Arctic region is warming faster than anywhere else in the United States. Understanding the rates and causes of coastal change in Alaska is needed to identify and mitigate hazards that might affect people and animals that call Alaska home.
Contact: ppearsall@usgs.gov
Photo Credit: Elena Popova
Short Film (6:56); No Vocals
Moments of a long research expedition on a vessel frozen in an ice floe. An inside look at the work in the polar regions for those desiring to dive under the ice.
Contact: 4elenapopova@gmail.com
Photo Credit: Sinan Yirmibeşoğlu
Medium Length Film (21:51); Turkish/English Subtitles
A documentary about the first observations of molting emperor penguins on Horseshoe Island, Antarctic Peninsula, recorded by a scientist. This research was published in the Polar Research Journal; a contribution to polar science for a better future for penguins.
Contact: sinan.yirmibesoglu@tubitak.gov.tr
Photo Credit: Float Your Boat
Short Film (4:14); English
This short film introduces and spotlights the Float Your Boat outreach project of the International Arctic Buoy Programme developed by David Forcucci (US Coast Guard, retired), and Ignatius Rigor (Polar Science Center, Applied Physics Laboratory, University of Washington in Seattle, Washington, USA) and co-managed by Sarah Johnson (Wild Rose Education). Learn more at www.FloatBoat.org.
Contact: arcticfloatboat@gmail.com
Photo Credit: Regnum
Sneak Peek (2:30); Spanish/English Subtitles
Eight scientific teams are navigating the effects of global warming in Antarctica to uncover data to combat climate change, even as glaciers are already retreating, and different animals are gearing up to face it.
Contact: regnumideas@gmail.com
Photo Credit: Caroline Wexler
Medium Length Film (27:48); English
For over 75 years, a team of students and researchers embark annually on a 80+ mile ski traverse across the Juneau Icefield in Southeast Alaska and British Columbia. The two-month expedition allows these students to study climate change at Earth's most sensitive margins. The film follows the perspective of several expedition members, each describing their unique experience from the icefield.
Contact: contact.carolwex@gmail.com
Photo Credit: Bastien Ruols
Short Film (5:20); English/French Subtitles
In the summer of 2022, the CRAG group from the University of Lausanne acquired an unprecedentedly large set of radar data over the Otemma glacier, Switzerland, using a newly developed drone-based system. This short film shows how this was done, from accessing the glacier to the display of the first results.
Contact: bastien.ruols@gmail.com
Photo Credit: Alissa Choi
Short Film (2:45); English
Ice cores can tell us a variety of information about Earth’s climate, atmosphere, and ocean systems in the past and present. Many are stored right here at the National Science Foundation Ice Core Facility in Lakewood, Colorado. Join me on a virtual tour of the facility to learn more about what goes into accessing this ice as well as the significance of deciphering the information this ice holds!
Contact: achoi34@wisc.edu
Photo Credit: Sinan Yirmibeşoğlu
Short Film (1:05); No Vocals
Scientists conducting research in Antarctica never leave the continent after working there once. Even though the continent pushes people to their extreme limits in the most difficult field conditions on Earth, it is impossible to escape its magic. This researcher's Antarctic field work trailer will impress you, too.
Contact: sinan.yirmibesoglu@tubitak.gov.tr
Photo Credit: Şebnem Coşkun
Short Film (5:23); Turkish/English Subtitles
The Arctic, a polar region located to the far north of the Earth, has been most affected by global climate change in recent years, resulting in the rapid melting of ice and warming. This has greatly affected wildlife, particularly the polar bear.
Polar bears, the world's largest land predators, have been designated as "vulnerable" on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List due to declining populations. They are most likely to lose habitat in the Arctic territories of Canada, Denmark (Greenland), Norway, Russia, and the US (Alaska) if the melting trend continues, putting these marine mammals' survival at risk.
Contact: scoskunn01@gmail.com/ Instagram: sebnemcoskun
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Photo Credit: Esther Kokmeijer
Short Film (9:30); Dutch/English Subtitles
Is it possible to make music with a whale? Dutch musician Tristan Visser sailed to Greenland to find out if a whale would react to his guitar playing. If the animals react to music, would this also mean they can hear human made noises produced in the ocean?
Contact: info@tristanvisser.com
Medium Length Film (13:42); English
Two talented carvers from each end of Aotearoa New Zealand take their whakairo (carving) to Antarctica in response to New Zealand's kaitiakitanga (guardianship) of the world’s largest marine protected area - The Ross Sea.
Contact: www.elantimedia.com
Photo Credit: Vanessa Wells | Elanti Media
All 2022 Films
Alaska's Salmon In A Changing Climate
Seabird Memorial
Qikiqtait SIKU Case study 2020
Kohtr'elneyh: Remembering Forward | Inside Alaska's Just Transition Summit
Listening to Savoonga
Alaska Subsistence - Spirit of the Ancestors
Qikiqtait SIKU Case Study 2020
Overwintering fires in boreal forests
The Arctic Halocline 2D
After Ice
Alaska Thaw
Into the polar night 3D
Shrinking ice
Shrinking Ice, AGF-212
Icy Bay Mega Tsunami
Field of Vision - Utuqaq
Some 2019 Films
ANTAR XXVII - ORCA 2020
Short film (2:50)
This Antarctic summer, the twenty-seventh Peruvian campaign was carried on board Peruvian Navy polar research vessel BAP Carrasco. It was a five-week voyage to Antarctic Peninsula, Bransfield Strait and South Shetland Islands. During this time we took sediment (for benthos, microplastics, heavy metals analysis), rocks and water samples. The ORCA project is leaded by Luis Cerpa from Peruvian Geological Institute (INGEMMET) and cooperation and participation of multidisciplinary researchers from Peru, Chile, Colombia, Uruguay, Spain and Belgium.
Keyssi Rodriguez
SVALBARD, the last stop before the North Pole
Short film (6:52), general audience, svalbard; Pyramiden; ghost mining town
A few minutes around the Svalbard Archipelago, located 900 kilometers away from the North Pole where I had the chance to put my camera in Ny-Alesund, the northernmost village on the planet and in Pyramiden, a Russian ghost mining town, lost in the heart of the Arctic...
Martin Gouzou
INCOGNITA PATAGONIA
Film (18:51), general audience, Patagonia, Glacier Retreat, Unexplored Icefield, First Ascents
Incognita Patagonia is a National Geographic project in the legendary Tierra del Fuego. In 2016 three young glaciologists and climbers embarked the Northanger sail boat to access the largely unknown Cloue Icefiled - the southernmost icefield in South America. The objectives were to 1. Survey and map the recent glacier changes in the area; 2. Attempt the first crossing of the icefield and its unclimbed peaks and 3. Re-launch the recently abandoned network of Automated Weather Stations of Charlie Porter (Glaciologist, USA, 2014). The expedition was a success and the movie aims to capture and share the spirit and findings of this adventure.
Enaut Izaguirre, Evan Miles, Ibai Rico
University of the Basque Country / Juneau Icefield Research Program
Svalbard film v7
Short film (4:04), general audience, Svalbard, history, climate change, ice melt, glaciers
Oct 2015 in Svalbard. This film is about a female polar bear guide in Svalbard who narrates a short film about the climate changes she is witnessing compared to the stories of polar explorers of the past. The film is more poetic than a strict storytelling-based film.
Dr. Tyler Robert Jones
INSTAAR, University of Colorado
Children of the Dig
Film (19:58), general audience, Alaska; archaeology; permafrost
In 2009, a 500-year-old artifact was discovered on the beach outside of Quinhagak, Alaska, opening the door to the most productive archaeological dig in Arctic history with 60,000 artifacts recovered so far. In 2009, the site was 50 feet from the ocean. Today it is ten.
Joshua A. Branstetter. Children of the Dig is a Branstetter Film production produced in collaboration with the Nunnaleq Project, Qanirtuuq, Inc., the Village of Quinhagak, and the University of Aberdeen with support from the Arts and Humanities Research Council.
Some 2018 Films
CRYOSPHERE: Frozen in Time
Short film (4:09), general audience
This short movie made from memories of three decades fast forwarded and rewound in funerary remembrance of three people. The authors tried to show the relation of lost love and a changing landscape. It is more emotional, than direct.
CRYOSPHERE: Frozen in Time presents still and moving images, narrated by letters written to a past self, to articulate the encounter between the half-century-old artist and the two-and-a-half-million-year-old cryosphere, the solid water of Earth. Glaciers advance and recede. Memories of three short decades fast forward and rewind in funerary remembrance. The memoriam offers viewers an intimate, one-sided glimpse of love lost to a changing landscape.
Baffin Island: Lessons from the Past
Short film (3:01), general audience
Scientists learn more about the past of Baffin Island's climate and organisms by analyzing sediment cores from the Arctic tundra.
by Zach Montes and Sarah Crump
The toxic compounds of the Arctic - Greenland - (serie 3/3)
Short film (7:59), general audience
Part 3 of a series concerning toxic compounds found in the Arctic. This film highlights those found in Greenland.
The other two parts of this series can be found here:
Part 1: https://vimeo.com/265129607
Part 2: https://vimeo.com/265130217
Antarctica-The seventh continent
Short film (2:59), general audience
Researchers spend 8 weeks in the Weddell Sea with RV POLARSTERN. In total, they covered 9125 nm, 4294 nm within the area of scientific interest.
Ice Alive
Medium-length film (20:01), general audience
Joseph Cook is taking a closer look at the microbial life that can be found all over the planet's glaciers and ice sheets. It is increasingly clear that this rich ecosystem affects the melt rates of polar ice and snow and could be accelerating climate change.
Narrated by Jim Al-Khalili and starring Chris Hadfield.
Vodavos
Mid-length film (32:10), general audience (subtitiles available)
This film highlights carbon transfer in one of the largest rivers in the Arctic. It follows two labs (French and Russian) and the challenges surrounding fieldwork in the small Siberian town of Igarka.
The toxic compounds of the Arctic - Svalbard - (serie 2/3)
Short film (7:25), general audience
From clothing to cookwear, harmful chemical compounds leak out of everyday products and find their way to the Arctic. Learn how this "Invisible Pollution" is affecting bird colonies in Svalbard.
The other parts of this series can be found below.
Part 1: https://vimeo.com/265129607
Part 3: https://vimeo.com/265130344
Cloudcatcher
Short film (10:52), general audience
The influence of winter cloud coverage in warming of the Arctic. Introduction to the function of aerosols and the work done in Ålesund research village/zeppelin mountain.
Feeding Nunavut: What happens when a hunter-gatherer society runs out of food
Short film (5:21), general audience
In Artic Canada, tasks as basic as finding adequate food are made burdensome by the realities of the High North. See how members of a Nunavut community have adapted to a changing culture and climate in their daily lives.
Little Auks through the ages
Short film (13:55), general audience
Little Auks have inhabited Greenland for thousands of years, but today face environmental pressures that threaten their very survival. Travel with a cutting-edge team of researchers from France to see how scientists are learning more about these birds and their long legacy in the Arctic. This film highlights the environmental changes facing a little Auk colony in Greenland, and the different types of research necessary to study them.
Some 2017 Films
Featured longer film:
Glacial Balance
Filmmaker Ethan Steinman takes us to a place you might not think of as polar, but which is a crucial part of the cryosphere, the Earth's ice covered ecosystem: the Andes mountains in South America. The glaciers in these peaks do everything from providing fresh drinking water to numerous indigenous communities to helping to regulate the global climate system. From Colombia to Argentina, journey through the world of tropical glaciers to see how their disappearance is affecting the entire planet at scales big and small.
With Enough Evidence, Even Skepticism Will Thaw
Short film (7:03), general audience
In northern Greenland, The Washington Post follows two scientists to trek to one of the island's largest ice shelves to study how rapidly it's melting, and what this means for global sea level rise. The video, along with an accompanying story, is available on The Washington Post's website.
Arctic Variety: Exploring the Snow (Finland)
Short film (3:45), general audience
How do scientists in Finland explore snow - and why are they doing so with a paintbrush?
Featured film:
Incognita Patagonia
This award-winning film represents a combination of exploration, climbing, glacier mapping, and historic research in order to explore and traverse the Cloue Icefield (Hoste Island, southernmost South America), one of the most striking mountaineering challenges still to be achieved in Patagonia, at the heart of a largely unexplored area. Although often far from the typically imagined cryosphere, the Andes Mountains, which stretch through Patagonia, are home to rapidly shrinking glaciers. The ice fields in Patagonia are the largest in the southern hemisphere outside of Antarctica, and their melt poses similar problems to the surrounding communities as the loss of glaciers and seas ice in the Arctic does to northern indigenous peoples and wildlife.
Under the Sea Around Rothera
Short film (6:37), general audience
Ever wondered what the underwater world in Antarctica looks like? Dive into icy waves with us!
Some 2016 Films
Featured longer film:
Chasing Ice
Acclaimed environmental photographer James Balog was once a skeptic about climate change and a cynic about the nature of academic research. But through his Extreme Ice Survey, he discovers undeniable evidence of our changing planet. In Chasing Ice, Balog deploys revolutionary time-lapse cameras to capture a multi-year record of the world's changing glaciers. His hauntingly beautiful videos compress years into seconds and capture ancient mountains of ice in motion as they disappear at a breathtaking rate.
What Color is a Glacier?
Short film (3:18), general audience
It sounds like a simple question - what color is a glacier? This video, compiled from 6 field seasons around the Arctic and Antarctic, shows you just how complex that answer is, why it matters, and what I do as a researcher to help answer that question.
From a Climate Scientist's Perspective
Short film (5:00), general audience
Climate scientist, Mike MacFerrin, shares his personal views and his own concerns about climate change.
Arctic sea ice, variability, and climate
Short film (5:21), general audience
Climate scientist, Jennifer Kay, talks about her research, climate models and climate variability.
PaleoDrake
Short film (8:00), general public
Short time-lapse video of the R/V Polarstern expedition PS97 PaleoDrake to the Antarctic Peninsula. The aim of this expedition was to gather infromation about the past, current and (possible) future climate evolution of this area.
A Girl and her Nanuk - Insight Collection
Short film (1:23), general audience
An Iñupiat elder describes her brother's encounter with an aggressive mother bear, and his time raising her cubs.
Thule Hunter
Short film (3:27), general audience
Dressed in polar bear pants, seal skin mittens, and a reindeer jacket hand made by his grandmother, Thomas Martika has never left his home town of Qaanaaq, Greenland. Struggling to hold on to his culture despite changing times, he shares his concerns.
Honoring the Gift
Mid-length film (31:21), general audience
“Honoring the gift” is a phrase said by Steve Oomittuk of Point Hope (Tikiġaq), Alaska. He described the cycle of life in Tikiġaq as a process “honoring the gift of the whale,” which gives itself to the people. 130 miles north of the Arctic Circle, a spit of Alaskan land points into the Chukchi Sea. The oldest continuously occupied settlement in the arctic, the Iñupiaq Eskimo people call this place Tikiġaq. from Christmas Week through the summer Whale Feast of Kaġaruk.
Produced and Directed by Maya Salganek. 2007.