‘Into the Ice,’ a Journey into the Bowels of Greenland’s Melting Ice Sheet, to Open CPH:DOX

variety.com:

Lise Pedersen The Copenhagen Intl. Documentary Film Festival, or CPH:DOX as it is known, has announced it will open with “Into the Ice” by Lars Henrik Ostenfeld.A striking film about Greenland’s melting ice sheet, it follows the director on his travels alongside three pioneering glaciologists into the bowels of one of the most hostile places on Earth.“We all know the ice is melting which will result in an enormous rise in sea levels and have major consequences for populations around the world.

But we don’t know how fast it’s happening,” says Ostenfeld, who explains: “Greenland is the place on Earth where it’s melting fastest so understanding what’s happening there can help us predict what will happen in the rest of the world. “We get most of our knowledge from satellites, radar gauging and computer models, but I was surprised to find that very few scientists are actually going into the field.

It’s the ice itself that holds the secret. So I decided to follow these scientists with my camera to better understand the consequences of climate change,” says Ostenfeld, who acts both as director and cinematographer.His adventure takes him on a series of journeys with scientists Alun Hubbard, Dorthe Dahl-Jensen and Jason Box.

These include a vertiginous and dangerous trip with Hubbard down a so-called “moulin,” a vertical well-like shaft within the ice sheet created by melting ice water.