Documentary: Morgan Mathews: Battleship Antarctica (U.K. 2007) A documentary about the Greenpeace ship Esperanza and its crew on a mission to prevent Japanese whalers from doing what they do. It’s an interesting documentary hijacked by the events: the Japanese ship has an explosion onboard, and in the end the Esperanza Continue Reading
Antarctica
Antarctic Research Blog #64: Scott’s Journals
Non-fiction: Robert Falcon Scott, edited by Max Jones: Journals – Scott’s Last Expedition (Oxford University Press, 2005) This is one of the first books about Antarctica I got, but I’ve been putting off reading it because its very thick and because I don’t like Scott very much. The central story Continue Reading
Antarctic Research Blog #63: Lucy & Jorge Orta’s Antarctic Expedition
Exhibition: Lucy & Jorge Orta: Antarctica (Hangar Biocca, Milan) I found an article on this piece from the indispensable art blog make money not art. Many countries have artist resirencies as part of their Antarctic programs, and some artists even get there on their own. The installations featured in the Continue Reading
Research Blog Antarctica #62 – Claire Keegan’s Antarctica
Book: Claire Keegan: Antarctica (Faber and Faber, 1999) This is a collection of Irish short stories. The title story uses Antarctica as a metaphor, and that’s where the collection’s connection to the continent begins and ends. The title story is intereresting, and a couple of the others are good as Continue Reading
Research Blog Antarctica #61
Movie: Peter Delpeut: Forbidden Quest (The Netherlands, 1993) A Dutch fake-documentary Antarctic movie! This is a great Antarctic film, done with very little means. Its a documentary about the fictitious Hollander expedition, put together using the actual vintage Antarctic and Arctic footage shot by Herbert Ponting, Frank Hurley and others. Continue Reading
Research Blog Antarctica #60: Alien Hunter
Movie: Ron Krauss: Alien Hunter (Bulgaria, U.S.A. 2003) At first you think you’re watching the X-Files, then John Carpenter’s The Thing. Closer to the end you realize this is actually a pretty clever B-movie with some moves of its own. In the beginning, alien stuff is found in the Antarctic Continue Reading
Research Blog Antarctica #59: The Ice
Fiction: Louis Charbonneau: the Ice (Thorndike Press, 1991) The funny thing about this book was that it was a large print edition, with a huge font size and lots of pages to compensate. In all honesty, this was the reason I chose this book to read out of my large Continue Reading
Research Blog Antarctica #58
Photo book: Patrick Hook: The Frozen World – a Panoramic Vision (Compendium Publishing, 2006) My wife got me this collection of panorama photos from the Arctic, the Antarctic and the Alpine regions of the world as a gift in Frankfurt. The book is physically huge, too large to fit Continue Reading
Research Blog Antarctica #57 – Poles Apart
Photo book: Galen Rowell: Poles Apart (Mountain Light Press, 1995) This is an insightful, comprehensive photo book. You get the impression that Rowell has been everywhere both above the Arctic circle and below the Antarctic circle. The book is organized around a series of visual comparisons between the northern and Continue Reading
Research Blog Antarctica #56
Movie: Ash Brannon & Chris Buck: Surf’s Up (U.S.A. 2007) A late entry in the recent spate in penguin movies. This is a bizarre film. It has the plot, the characters, the jokes, the voices, of a surf movie, except with penguins. The hero, Cody, is a young penguin from Continue Reading