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WINNER OF THE DOCUMENTARY AWARD EDINBURGH INTL FILM FESTIVAL 2008
Edinburgh Winners:
The Best Documentary Award Jury, chaired by Seamus McGarvey, said łThe documentaries competing for this award were, in many cases, exemplary. It was a powerful shortlist of contrasting styles and experience. Our deliberations were lengthy; each of us had favourites about which we were passionate. In the end, however, there was one film which we all agreed was the outstanding entry, a poetic vision but one with an unflinching gaze focusing on an area which should concern us all. This film is ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE WORLD directed by Werner Herzog. The film is about discovery.
Herzog uses his camera as a writer might use a pen, making notes as he goes along, allowing the audience to share the discoveries he makes through the lens. Many of the short listed films confront important issues in the world today. ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE WORLD approaches equally important issues but draws its authority from its quiet assurance. It is a challenging film and reveals, sometimes obliquely, sometimes directly, profound insights into the state we're in. We felt it was a celebration of documentary filmmaking that thoroughly deserves to win the 2008 Edinburgh International Film Festival Best Documentary Award.˛
TRAILER
http://www.kino-zeit.de/filme/artikel/trailer_9724_encounters-at-the-end-of-the-world.html
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The South Pole has lured scientists, adventurers and eccentrics like a magnet, ever since Ernest Shackleton ventured there a century ago. It seems inevitable that Werner Herzog should make his own South Pole exploration. In documentaries such as Grizzly Man, Little Dieter Needs to Fly, Lessons of Darkness and many others, Herzog has proven to be our cinematic poet laureate of men (and occasionally women) living in extremes. In Encounters at the End of the World, Herzog travels to the Antarctic community of McMurdo Station, on Ross Island, the headquarters for the National Science Foundation and home to eleven hundred people during the austral summer (October to February.) Beyond the settlement, he ventures through a science-fiction landscape, from the under-ice depths of the Ross Sea, to the brink of the Mount Erebus volcano.
Over the course of Herzog’s journey, nature in the wild shares equal time with human nature. McMurdo is a gathering place for people who want to step off the map or, in the words of one resident, “full-time travellers and part-time workers – professional dreamers.” The film’s episodic structure and Herzog’s knack for uncovering colourful characters are reminiscent of the great travel writer Bruce Chatwin (whose novel The Viceroy of Ouidah Herzog adapted for Cobra Verde).
Herzog’s encounters are alternately surreal, absurd, profound and, sometimes, all of the above. McMurdo newcomers train by covering their heads with buckets – to simulate blizzard blindness – and stumble through the snow practising life-or-death scenarios. A team of underwater scientists casually discovers three new species of life in one day. As a corrective to March of the Penguins, an expert at Cape Royds describes the birds’ aberrant behaviours, including threesomes and all-out avian madness.
Along the way, Herzog’s unmistakable voice ruminates on themes characteristic of his oeuvre, such as the mystery and malevolence of nature. At other times, he withholds commentary, leaving us to ponder sights from the end of the earth, set to a soundtrack of choral music. It’s enough to leave anyone speechless.
Thom Powers
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Technical Information:
Country: USA
Year: 2007
Language: English
Runtime: 99 minutes
Format: Colour/HDCAM
Rating: PG
Production Company: Discovery Films
Executive Producer: Erik Nelson, Dave Harding, Phil Fairclough, Julian Hobbs
Producer: Henry Kaiser
Cinematographer: Peter Zeitlinger
Editor: Joe Bini
Sound: Werner Herzog
Music: Henry Kaiser, David Lindley
Contact Information:
US Distributor: Discovery Channel
http://encountersfilm.com/
Press:
movies.yahoo.com/mv/news/va/20070918/119013776600.html - 23k -
www.variety.com/review/VE1117934764.html
www.ruthlessreviews.com/reviews.cfm/
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