(Pictured from left to right: Producer Paula DuPre’ Pesmen, Deputy Director and General Counsel CEQ Gary Guzy, Photographer James Balog, Executive Producers Linda and David Cornfield, Earth Vision Trust Executive Director Jane Saltzman, Associate Director CEQ Rohan Patel, Director Jeff Orlowski, and Counsel of White House CEQ Kevin Samy.)

On Earth Day, April 22, 2013, we humbly screened Chasing Ice at The White House. This was not only an incredible honor for the Chasing Ice team but also a rare opportunity to share the realities of climate change with some of America’s key policymakers.

We were also privileged to have the White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough join us to share a few words: “President Obama always talks about [climate change] in relation to his girls’ future. As with anything, I think we all who are parents can understand, there is nothing that is more motivating than thinking about the kind of place where your kids are going to grow up. Let me just underscore what the President said to include in the State of the Union, ‘that this is something that we have to act on.’ He has challenged Congress to do that, then if Congress doesn’t, then he’s obviously leaned on his cabinet in the ways that he talked about in his speech. But, it’s because of the work that Jeff [Orlowski] has done to highlight for us the nature of this challenge, that he feels as strongly about it as he does. I thank you all for doing what you do as a matter of course every day. I think it’s a great source of inspiration for us. Welcome to the White House and thank you on behalf of my own kids and on behalf of all of us here who are working on this.”

(Pictured above: Heather Zichal, Deputy Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change, speaks about the film and climate change.)

Also present was Heather Zichal, Deputy Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change, Nancy Sutley the Chair of The Council on Environmental Quality, Gary S. Guzy the Deputy Director of the Office of Environmental Quality as well as many environmental NGOs and White House Staff. The screening took place at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building at The White House.

Chasing Ice will be airing across the United States on The National Geographic Channel starting April 19th, 8pm EST, and worldwide in 171 countries on April 20th. The film is part of A Night of Exploration – one night each week throughout 2013 dedicated to the hot shots, the mavericks, and the best in their field who have devoted their lives to exploring the world around us and the ground-breaking discoveries that are making a difference. Check your local listings for times and please help spread the word to your friends.

Chasing Ice will also begin playing in Australia on April 17th at Cinema Nova in Melbourne. Showtimes and tickets are available here.

Jeff Orlowski is an American filmmaker and the director and cinematographer of SundanceExcellence in Cinematography Award Documentary winning film ‘Chasing Ice’. He joined Film Forward in Colombia to screen and discuss his latest film.

The Security Brief from the State Department was thoroughly frightening: Narco and FARC groups are responsible for many of the local bombings.  Be aware of criminals who show false police identification.  The drug scopolamine—which works as a truth serum and blocks your memory—is administered in liquid, spray, and powder forms and is used to rob unsuspecting victims.  It didn’t help that we were picked up from the airport in a bulletproof van, displaying damage from a shotgun blast on the front windshield.

But despite these remnants of the old Colombia from the 80’s and 90’s, the Colombia we experienced with Film Forward was enchanting and captivating—and much safer than the Security Brief led us to believe.  And our journey around the country put art in the spotlight, allowing us to use film as a medium of cultural exchange and share stories with people who typically would never see our films.

I joined Nancy Buirski, the director of The Loving Story, and members of the Sundance Institute and Sundance Channel Global on a week-long trip around Colombia.  We started in the capital city of Bogota, then went to Bucaramanga, Medellin, and back to Bogota.  We averaged 1-2 screenings every day of both The Loving Story and our film Chasing Ice.  We screened in grade schools, colleges and community centers, in beautiful cinemas and classrooms turned into makeshift theaters.

Since Chasing Ice premiered at Sundance in 2012, our team has participated in many Q&A’s around the country—so many, in fact, that they’ve become somewhat routine. But before heading to Colombia, I had no idea what to expect.  Aside from the risk of things being lost in translation, what would these students ask?  What would they be concerned about?  Would they understand everything in the film?  Would they even care about climate change?

I often asked the audience a couple of questions to gauge their perspective on the issue.  How many people think climate change is a hoax or a lie?  No hands went up.  How many people think climate change is real and happening?  Virtually every hand went up.  Many believed that it was both due to man-made causes as well as natural variation.  Once in a while, somebody would say that they knew someone who thought that climate change was completely due to a natural cycle and has no human causes, but that was a very rare perspective.  These audiences almost always tied climate change into a bigger issue of environmental stewardship.  And they always had stories of how it related to their own lives.

In the rural town of Bucaramanga, Canadian companies are doing extensive gold mining that is affecting local water supply.  People are being forced out of their homes due to the mining.  At the top of a mountain, they told us that the temperatures used to be much colder there.  This town was always considered a very cold area, and they have never experienced as much warmth as they had in the last decade.  The principal of a school was wearing slacks and a button-down shirt, and emphatically stressed that he could never dress like this before—growing up, he always had to wear a jacket, and now this is the new normal.

At one screening, a panel of local scientists who told us about how local rainfall patterns are changing, frog species are dying, how in the last few years they’ve had extreme and atypical drought and flood events, and how those floods have effected local neighborhoods.  These communities know—intuitively—that climate change is happening.  To some degree, they didn’t need Chasing Ice to inform them of how the planet is changing—they’re living it and experiencing it every day.

But one of the most interesting questions we received had nothing to do with the film.  We were often asked “Why are you here?”  As in, why did Film Forward choose to bring these filmmakers to visit their tiny little town?  They seemed surprised that we would even consider visiting them.  And I think there’s nothing that answers that better than a Facebook post made by a young girl.  She saw Chasing Ice one night, and shared this message with her friends:

As global warming continues to increase, the glacier retreat is an imminent danger we face. The use of fossil fuel is alarming. We depend on the ruling powers who control this issue at their to dictate our global economy. Our grain of sand isn’t to use the cart, for example. The most powerful governments have the last word and we are crossing our arms. TAKE CARE OF OUR PLANET! - Alexandriita Garciia (Facebook)

This is why we went there.

“BEFORE MY TIME” NOMINATED FOR ACADEMY AWARD
The Chasing Ice team is incredibly proud of composer J. Ralph on his original song “Before My Time” featuring Scarlett Johansson and Joshua Bell receiving an Academy Award Nomination for Best Original Song. Along with Chasing Ice, Ralph has scored a number of other projects, including Academy Award-winning films The Cove and Man on Wire. The Chasing Ice soundtrack is currently available on iTunes.

CHASING ICE BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND
Due to audience requests, Chasing Ice is returning to Chicago and San Francisco, as well as many other cities. To find a Chasing Ice showing near you, visit our showtimes page.

CHASING ICE TOOK HOME FOUR MORE AWARDS 
Chasing Ice received an award for Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography at the 6th Annual Cinema Eye Honors for Nonfiction Filmmaking ceremony. The Cinema Eye Honors recognize excellence in craft, presenting annual awards in directing, producing, cinematography, editing, composing, and graphic design/animation. In addition, at this year’s Waimea Ocean Film Festival in Hawaii, Chasing Ice and Director Jeff Orlowski received the Waimea Film Festival Award, the Audience Award, and the Film Director Award.

CHASING ICE OUTREACH THANKS TO THE KENDEDA FUND
With support from the Kendeda Fund, people in a number of cities around the country are able to see Chasing Ice complimentary through an outreach grant. If you know people or groups who would like to attend showings in Knoxville, San Francisco, Austin, Irvine (Orange County, CA), or Chicago, please feel free to share this. Spread the word – some of these shows are already playing! 

CHASING ICE COMPLIMENTARY TICKET OUTREACH PROGRAM

Short URL: http://bit.ly/CI-comps

Please use the following Group Code: IceNewsJan30

BRING CHASING ICE TO YOUR CITY
We have received requests from many of you for screenings of Chasing Ice in cities where it is not playing in theaters, as well as for schools and organizations. If you would like to host a screening of the film, please fill out this form and we will be in touch with you.

CHASING ICE COMING TO DVD THIS SUMMER
While the date is not yet confirmed, we are excited to share with you that DVDs of Chasing Ice will be available for purchase starting this summer! More information will be coming in the following weeks.

A number of others were honored at the ceremony, including Elon Musk, who received the EMA Corporate Responsibility Award for his work with Tesla, and Jessica Alba, who received the EMA Green Parent Award for The Honest Company. More information about the awards can be found here. The Chasing Ice team would like to congratulate all of the other nominees and winners for their dedication to the environment and the work they are doing to create a more sustainable future. For our US friends, Chasing Ice will be showing in select theaters on November 9th and November 16th, the details of which can be found under “Showtimes“.

Below: Subject James Balog holds the EMA award.

“The camerawork in this movie is like nothing I have ever seen before. It captures the scale and beauty of the Arctic in a very intimate way. We are privy to a viewing of glaciers in remote areas that will never look the same again, and the disintegration of ice that has been in place for millennia.The raw photographic evidence that Balog presents makes climate change as real as it can get before it comes tapping at our own front door.”

To read more, visit: http://www.critic.co.nz/culture/article/2262/chasing-ice

To read more, visit: http://www.usatoday.com/weather/climate/globalwarming/story/2012-08-04/heat-waves-climate-change-james-hansen/56794570/1

To read more, visit: http://www.npr.org/2012/08/03/158085161/changing-views-about-a-changing-climate