WHITE SHADOWS

The first scientific expedition in the history of human exploration was launched in 1897. Destination: the recently discovered continent of Antarctica, which for more than 17 centuries had been nothing but an idea, a presumption, a myth. The Belgica expedition successfully reached Antarctica… and froze fast there. One century later, a documentary filmmaker charts the same course to Antarctica on an icebreaker packed with tourists. He hopes to arrive at an island no human has ever set foot on - an island that carries the name of his hometown: Ghent. What shall we do with our age-old urge to explore, expand, give names, and take possession ? Does it make any difference whether we do this in the name of colonization, scientific progress or well-intentioned eco-tourism ? Do we have to do things just because they’ve become technologically possible ? Unlike most Antarctica documentaries, White Shadows is not concerned with tales of heroic discovery or ecological disaster. Rather, it is a personal exploration about the human quest for knowledge, an attempt to probe the boundaries between improvement and digression. (www.elektrischerschnellseher.com)