(USA/2007—directed by Werner Herzog)

 “No director demonstrates Werner Herzog’s gift for depicting the crushing inhuman power of natural landscapes, and the way that power transforms the human subject into something problematic. The vast empty splendor of Antarctica represents the quintessential Herzog setting and inspiration, with the physicists, biologists and vocanologists Herzog interviews – each struggling to extract meaning from this place – functioning as both comic and heroic doppelgangers within the director’s visionary enterprise. With Herzog’s penchant for lyrical speculation balanced by solid scientific and historical fact, Encounters reveals a place that exists wholly apart from our prosaic day-to-day human society, and represents a decisive work by an artist at the height of his powers.” –Larry Gross, Telluride Film Festival (98 min.)

“An awesome film… a continent so vast it moves beyond human comprehension.”    -Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times