Literary Movie Review: Encounters at the End of the World

This documentary, like most documentaries I’ve seen, or rather experienced (I always imagined experiencing what the people in them are doing, vicariously) pulled me in through tubes of not quite zealous fascination, but fascination nonetheless - fascination that’s well worth writing about.

This film, while it may be particular, in that it takes place in one region of the Earth – Antarctica – has a tangible feel of universality through the queer (in a positive and at times comical way) characters of dedicated individuals who all migrated to that “southern comfort”, shall we say, as if they all had an inherent magnetic pull to go there, to fulfill something inside, be it a banker’s need to see a world higher than money or a linguist’s need to understand the extinction of languages through the extinction of species (or the discovering of species) or a film maker’s need to film something other than penguins.

The universal void in everyone needs to be filled and Antarctica, whether the people in the documentary stumbled upon it or made a marked effort to be there, may be the perfect place for a select few individuals. In this light, the universality becomes particular or rather has a particular aspect in it, for, while not everyone who feel as if they are missing something in life would go to Antarctica in search for answers, there still is that itching void or latent spark of deep interest or desire that just might be the lit match on gun powder that ends in the filling of a void, a reality.

Another universal theme is what I like to call “cultural bonding” or cultural fusion as my ninth grade global history teacher taught me (though that implies an exchange of cultural influences, whereas I am talking about the coming together of different cultures). People from many different cultures unite in Antartica (the ones that stand out in my mind includes the shy Russian with his pre-prepared bag of saftey and the man with Aztec roots (with proof in the shape of his fingers and other visceral pieces of evidence).

And it's interesting too that you don’t just go to Antarctica. You go there with a purpose, whichever purpose your void is. I often found myself looking at the bottom right of the screen and seeing two professions that quite don’t match. For example, I remember distinctly, “(name) Banker, forklifter.” Yes, most of the people there have a goal in mind, whether that be embedded in scientific research of species, adorable seals who made research easy on the probing researchers, or glaciers (the glacialogist’s part of the documentary ,by the way, was very well imaginatively articulate, I thought as I took in his words) or whether that be in a desire to achieve more in life, like the banker who decided to turn to another road in his career and be a “globe’s man” and who, after mastering a language of a rare tribe of people and helping them, found himself in Antarctica helping those scientists.

Kudos to all those participants in the documentary.

Just as I am a mild enthusiast of early American history, I am also a mild enthusiast of subjects relating to Earth science, including the arctic, weather and just recently (after I took my Search for Life in the Universe class, in which I learned about the ever fascinating extremofiles who live in deep sea vents) some marine life. I recommend this film to those who love nature and eccentric stories of the lives of seemingly random people (I say seemingly because, on a larger scale, the people in the documentary are not random if you consider the perspective that they inevitably would unite in Antarctica, thanks to fate). That combination makes a captivating two hour sit worthwhile.