Well we all had a bit of fun in July when the station entered the 2010 Antarctic International Winter 48 Hour Film Festival (quite a mouth-full that). For those of you who have never heard of it, you're not alone. It's not exactly a Sundance or a Tropfest, but it's the biggest film festival held in Antarctica! The festival is in its third year now and is organised out of the American base McMurdo (or is it McMordor)? The Americans had actually been holding the festival for a number of years before that, but it had always been in-house. This year the festival is showing signs of increasing popularity with a total of 41 films from 21 Antarctic and subantarctic stations representing 11 nations.
So as with most film festivals the Antarctic festival has a theme. The film has to be created and produced in a 48 hour period (usually a weekend) and must include five elements that aren't announced until the eve of filming. This year the five elements were:
1) A bottle of mouthwash
2) The sound of a siren
3) A mop
4) A grumpy dieso (diesel mechanic)
5) And the dialogue "Have you seen my chicken?"
I feel that it's particularly important to labour this point, if you watched this film out of context you may think we'd gone completely mad. Who knows, you might think that anyway!
The voting is open to all expeditioners wintering in the Antarctic or subantarctic, with a total of five categories to vote on, best film, acting, cinematography, screenplay and use of elements. The elements are chosen by the winners from the previous year's festival. So it looks like it will be Davis' turn to pick them next time. After many hours of work by all involved we were able to come out as winners in two categories, best cinematography and best film. There was also an open category that Davis scored an honourable third place in (go Zupy)! If you're interested, all of the films can be viewed at this link:
Awesome. Downloading them now. Will watch them in the desert.
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