I don't know if I've ever gotten emotional over a nature documentary. But this did it. I first encountered Jeff Orlowski senior year of high school. We went on a field trip to see Chasing Ice at a screening with the director, a Stuyvesant alumnus. The main scientist in this film watched the documentary on a plane and saw an opportunity. Chasing Ice was about documenting the receding ice shelf, using innovative camera technology to adapt to the harsh conditions. Well, in this case, they wanted to document the bleaching of corals around the world and obviously underwater time-lapse photography is a new challenge. Luckily, Orlowski was up for the challenge. The footage is absolutely mesmerizing. They literally capture the coral reefs dying in the fast warming oceans. Some corals on the Great Barrier Reef developed a new fluorescence adaptation to the hot waters. Similar to his previous film, Orlowski documents the process, including failed trials after which they adjust the new tech. The result is powerful footage that should inspire us to do something about global warming. Over the credits is an original song sung by Kristen Bell--thanks to Frozen, it sounds very Disney. But in any case, it sounds hopeful. I don't really like the song, but I appreciate the tone at the end of a movie documenting the beginning of a mass extinction. On the contrast, the song at the end of Chasing Ice performed by Joshua Bell and Scarlett Johansson is hauntingly beautiful. It surprisingly was even noticed by the Academy and was nominated for an Oscar, though it was inexplicably not performed at the ceremony.
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