With about 1,200 residents at peak capacity, McMurdo Station is the New York City of Antarctica. It is by far the largest of the small research facilities scattered throughout the frozen continent.
A satellite communications engineer by trade, New Zealander Anthony Powell became an accomplished photographer and budding filmmaker during his 10 years stationed in Antarctica. He had to do something to pass the time, besides marrying an American co-worker.
He documents both its vast unspoiled natural beauty as well as the hardy but diverse people who make some kind of a home there in “Antarctica: A Year on Ice.”
Yes, it gets cold down there. In fact, “Year” would not be possible were it not for the inventive new techniques Powell developed and his general talent for jury-rigging cameras. Nature lovers will ooh-and-aww at his time-lapse photography, but the film is even more interested in Powell’s colleagues and neighbors, making it a close cinematic cousin of Werner Herzog’s “Encounters at the End of the World.”
Yet, Powell is more egalitarian, focusing on the accountants, firemen, and shopkeepers who perform “conventional” jobs in one of the most remote corners of the world.
