Ice and the Sky

The film festival will open with a voyage into the farthest reaches of the icy Antarctic, a destination seemingly far from the deserts of the Gulf, but of equally vital relevance to the entire world. Equal parts scientific procedural and gripping adventure story, Luc Jacquet’s Ice and the Sky also presents the findings that laid the groundwork for much of our modern understanding of climate change. The accompanying short presents a vision of melting ice and shifting temperatures in a familiar yet alien context.

Ice and The Sky
89 min | Luc Jacquet | France | 2015

Ice and The Sky tells the story of a man who encountered his destiny, aged 23, in the Antarctic. The film will retrace his life‟s journey, from his first steps as a young glaciologist to the crowning moment of his glittering career – winning the Blue Planet Prize, the Nobel of environmental sciences. This is the story of Claude Lorius, and his groundbreaking climatological research. MENA PREMIERE!

Preceded by:

PLANET ∑
12 min | Momoko Seto | France | 2014

Giant creatures are trapped inside the ice. Submarine explosions provoke a global warming, and a new life begins for animals. An exoplanetary ecological cycle, built from entirely earthly phenomena.

Momoko Seto, Director of PLANET ∑

Momoko Seto was born in Tokyo in 1980. After studying at the Tokyo French Lycée, she travelled to France to study Art at the École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Marseille, then at the Le Fresnoy National Studio of Contempoary Art. At the same time as working as a film director at the CNRS (National Centre of Scientific Research) in Paris, she makes experimental films mingling different genres. She has made a number of short films and documentaries, which have been presented and acclaimed at several international festivals. Her latest film PLANET ∑ received the Audi Short Film Award at the 65th Berlinale.

Panel discussion moderated by Alexis Gambis, Executive Director, Imagine Science Films

Alexis is a French-Venezuelen scientist, filmmaker and founder of Imaginal Disc, a film production company focused on scientific storytelling. His work is interdisciplinary and diverse, yet focuses on bridging the sciences and the visual arts through film, exhibits and installations, research and teaching. He received his Ph.D in Molecular Biology from The Rockefeller University, a Masters in Bioinformatics from the University of Marne la Vallée and Bachelor of Arts from Bard College. He recently completed the New York University Graduate Film Program as a thesis student, and his first feature, The Fly Room, based on a the true life story of a pioneer geneticist from the 1920s debuted at the Woodstock Film Festival. Alexis is currently working on his second feature.