Special Screening of Beneath the Polar Sun with local filmmakers Diana Jushner and Steven Smith.
Beneath the Polar Sun
“An Arctic expedition is caught in the grip of the ice it has come to study.”
Story Summary:
When snow and ice vanish, the Earth changes color. Its surface becomes less reflective, more of the sun’s energy gets absorbed, and temperatures rise. The dire data from climate modeling tells us where to expect the fastest changes. The Arctic. We know what’s happening there. We know the oldest sea ice is disappearing. Yet a rare expedition 500 nautical miles from the North Pole yields a startling discovery.
Steve is an expedition leader who has led projects in the High Arctic for 40 years. Chris is an oceanographer who studies the world’s oldest ice floes from a Harvard lab. They know the data, the models, the science. None of that has prepared them for the truth on the ground. The floes are crumbling and collapsing, the old ice is gone. Against brutal conditions the science is scuttled and the expedition team struggles for survival. Caught in a frozen maelstrom, something has to give.
Director Profiles:
Diana Kushner started her Rhode Island organic farm in the 1990s. When not growing vegetables, she escapes into books and into the wilderness -- especially into icy realms. This is her first time directing a film. Three expeditions to the Arctic have given Diana insights into how changes happening in the frozen North are making direct impacts upon her life as a farmer.
Stephen Smith has been exploring the Far North since the late 1970s. As a wildlife biologist, he has been involved in polar research for three decades. As an expedition leader, he has organized and led more than 60 projects in the High Arctic. He has directed two previous feature films spotlighting the changing Arctic, including Vanishing Point (finalist for “Best Feature Documentary” at the 2014 Canadian Screen Awards).Smith has watched the Arctic change at four times the rate of the rest of the world. He considers the decline of Arctic albedo to be an existential threat to our planetary life support
Event sponsored by the Friends of the JPL.