I have virtually zero interest in travel, and truthfully, can barely tell cities/places apart from one another. However, a winter in Antarctica looks like exactly the kind of paradise vacation I need to experience before I die.

I hate the sun. I accept it's necessity, but I will never understand willingly subjecting oneself to its rays, and actually finding pleasure in it. I can't even comprehend the feeling of majestic joy and serenity I would feel throughout my entire being to watch the sun set, and know that it would not return for 4 months.

There were people in this film I related to on a profound level. So many films are praised for their exploration of loneliness and isolation…

I've always admired Herzog's idiosyncratic and ethereal "Encounters at the end of the World," it's a beautiful and insightful documentary by one of the world's great filmmakers. It's interesting to see how his film contrasts in so many ways with this one, yet both are at their core such beautiful and remarkable experiences.

Herzog had only seven weeks to plan and shoot his film ... it is definitely an outsider's (dare I say tourists'?) point of view. He knew no one, in fact many of his interview subjects he'd only met moments before. There's an immediacy there, but also an unfamiliarity ... he communicates the sense of wonder, analysis and apprehension (even fear) that most people feel in any new…

I was out of work for 6 months back in the 2009 recession and briefly considered accepting a summer job in Antarctica servicing computers at McMurdo Base. However, family responsibilities kept me from freezing my ass off at the bottom of the world and I eventually wound up getting re-employed by my former company at a generous 30% pay cut.

Had I seen this absolutely breathtaking documentary of life at McMurdo back then, I likely would've said family be damned, hopped an Air Force transport down there, and stayed for an entire year.

Antarctica is populated with iconoclasts and eccentrics, and it has to be, because who else would subject themselves to these kinds of extremes? Four months of constant…

Anthony Powell is a satellite communications technician working at the McMurdo Base station in Antarctica. He's also a cameraman and a tinkerer, developing camera systems that can function at the sub-zero temperatures and Category 5 winds of the Antarctic winter. This documentary was put together to show the effects of one year of living in Antarctica on both the environment and the people working there.

Powell interviewed his fellow inhabitants, followed them (and himself) doing the strenuous tasks of surviving in the environment which is the closest to the surface of Mars that exists on Earth. The film is full of inspiring sequences and hysterically funny sequences (people go batty during the 4-month-long night.) But the meat of this film…

This documentary about the New Zealand photographer Anthony Powell who goes to Antarctica for one year is available on Youtube at the moment. The pictures are FANTASTIC!!! Including some beautiful Macros. It took him over 10 years to finish this project! One gets to know some basic information, for example that during summer time there are about 5.000 people working in Antarctica and that only 700 stay over winter. I guess Powell didn´t count any locals. In the beginning there are some funny shots from the inside of a transporter airplane: In-between the freight the passengers are sitting on the floor or some little unncomfortable seats packed in warm orange winter jackets! I guess there is no heating on the…

Well crafted documentary on a group of people who spend a year in Antarctica. This is a compelling documentary on a very good subject, and what these people go through is really interesting. What makes this documentary interesting is the fact that each person has a unique story about what compels them to go to Antarctica. Well shot, engaging, and thoroughly entertaining, this is a near perfect documentary that will certainly appeal to fans of the genre. What I enjoyed the most about the film was the fact that it gives you a pretty good idea of what it must be like staying there for a year. With that being said, this is a stunning picture, a film that grabs…

A slow-paced, relaxing documentary about a year at the American McMurdo research base in Antarctica (named after a crewman of the HMS Terror, for fans of The Terror!), filmed by someone who works there and certainly knows how to compose a nice shot. Nothing especially dramatic or groundbreaking happens throughout, the film is more about how working in that part of the world feels, helped by some amazing time-lapse shots and nature footage.

We do learn a little about the staff (lots of young, white people trying to find themselves) and their jobs, but this is more of an observational film about the passing of time in a remote location, rather than a deep-dive into any particular topic or psychology.…

Werner Herzog’s “Encounters at the End of the World” is one of my favorite documentaries because it is able to capture the sense of wonder, mystery, and majesty of Antarctica. Anthony Powell’s “Antarctica: A Year on Ice” is its less philosophical and poetic cousin, its focus more on the people living in two research bases: McMurdo Station (United States) and Scott Base (New Zealand).

Powell spends an entire year in a continent that contains about five thousand people during the summer and less than five hundred during the long winter. It must be a scary, lonely place—especially when there is only darkness outside for months—yet I still wish to go there and experience the lifestyle of the pioneers.

The documentary…