FARGO, N.D. (FargoPhantom.com)–Tuesday night at 7 PM the 9th Fargo Film Festival began to an almost
completely compact house. This year, there are four ice sculpted penguins in
front of the theatre. The weather has been cold enough to preserve these
sculptures, done by students from NDSU’s Department of Architecture and the
public is requested to respect the integrity of the art.
Penguins are appropriate, as the centerpiece of this year’s opening night
was the Film “Ice People,” an invited film directed by Anne Aghion of New York
City. The film was a documentary of an expedition to Antartica by two NDSU
Geoscience Professors, Doctors Alan Asworth and Adam Lewis, who wre
accompanied by two students and Aghion and her crew. As Margie Mailey, in
introducing the Festival and the film explained, she invited the film after
she found out that it is scheduled to open the San Francisco Film Festival.
She knew Dr. Ashworth, but not about the film, so the rest was easy.
The Festival opened with two short documentaries about the making of the
ice sculptures in front of the theatre and a Canadian ice sculpture competion.
The movie “Ice People” was filmed entirely with a hughe glacier and a volcano
as background. Of course one wonders how interesting a movie about four
people traipsing around in the inland of Antartica can be. Well, one question
the movie answers is what are they doing there in the first place. These
people, though, are true scientists, good at what they do. Dr. Ashworth has
been to Antartica manyh times. Does he like Antartica? No. Nobody in their
right mind would want to live in a tent for six weeks without bathinng,
temperatures as low as seventy below Farenheit with winds of up to 95 mph.
The reason these scientists are there is that Antartica may hold the
answers to the questions that drive these scientists. Dr. Lewis gives what I
thought was an excellent explanation of what drives people like him and how
basic research in science is done. As it turns out, this expedition(in 2006)
did make the dicovery of pre-historic fossil plant life in Antartica, showing
that Anartica was once temporate. This was an important discovery, and I
would like to point out as an aside that NDSU’s faculty is full of such highly
qualified scholars who regularly make such important contributions.
I found the scenery in the movie stunning and terrifying. Can’t say I
saw much beautiy in it; it was, after all well inland, and there was.
according to Dr. Ashworth, absolutely no flora or fauna. The terrain looked
like a very frozen tundra.
There are a couople of other topics touched on: the relation between
religion and science and, of course, global warming. These topics were given
only lip service, which I found a relieving avoidence of controvercy.
A Q&A followed the movie with the two professors, one of tne studetns and
Anne Aghion answering questons from the audience. In answer to a question
about studying the glacier(I think the mnovie has to be seen to appreciate its
size) for evidence of global warming, Dr. Lewis answered that was a different
science. Aghion answered the important question about who funded the
expedition by pointing that the National Science Foundation funded much of the
science part of it and that the filming part of the expedition was funded by
other scources, but there is still some outstanding bills.
To wrap up this part of the evening, the high points were, I think, the
scenery, the stark realism of the Antartic, and a glimpse into what drives
research scientists, namelm science itself.
The second film of the evening was another documentary, “In Rwanda we
Say… the family that does not speak dies>” I didn’t stay to see this, but I
wish I had in many ways. It was also invited and also directed by Aghion.
According to the Festival program, the movie is about Aghion’s quest to
understand how the human spirit survives after a trauma as serioous as the
attempt to wipe out the Tsutsi minority in 1994.
Aghion seems to have turned documentry directing into a science itself(or
maybe it always was and I just didn’t realize it); she certainly has the
driven, inquiring mind of a scientist. I look forward to seeing more of her
work.
The Fargo Film Festival is off to a powerful start, and I intend to take in
many more offerings. One caveat about this years Festival: oarking is at a
premium. I parked two blocks away last night, and i have a handicapped
permit.
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Read More about the 2009 Fargo Film Festival