Chasing Ice

With first-time director Jeff Orlowski glorying in the time-lapse sequences capturing glaciers receding in Greenland, Iceland, Alaska and Montana, it would be all-too-easy to dismiss this documentary as being too much in love with the stunning visuals. But the evidence gathered by natural-history photographer James Balog for his Extreme Ice Survey seems so disconcertingly conclusive that this becomes much more than a breathtaking record of nature in all its terrifying beauty: the film is, instead, intended as a warning. In 2007, Balog began venturing into the frozen wilds to set up cameras that would show how fast the glaciers were, and are, retreating. It's sobering stuff but the film's impact is somewhat diminished by Orlowski's reverential profile of Balog, who continues to crusade despite the toll his endeavours have taken on his body.