At times, a subject can be so vast, so all-encompassing, that it would be challenging to contain it within the bounds of traditional narrative storytelling. In such cases, non-narrative filmmaking can offer a powerful vehicle by which to explore themes that feel too monumental to be absorbed in a linear intellectual fashion, relying more deeply on the viewer’s visceral emotional connection with the work. It can be a tricky form to master, but as filmmakers such as Godfrey Reggio (Koyaanisqatsi); Ron Fricke (Baraka); and Massimo D’Anolfi and Martina Parenti (Bestiari, Erbari, Lapidari) have demonstrated, the genre has the potential to communicate with the audience on a profoundly complex level difficult to attain from within the confines of more traditional documentary filmmaking.
Given the genre’s lack of reliance on familiar touchstones like plot or character, it is an extremely challenging form to master, rendering the achievement of large format photographer (now filmmaker) Leonard Alecu’s first foray into the moving image all the more impressive. Ice Breath, filmed between 2015 and 2023 off the eastern coast of Greenland, is a truly stunning addition to the field of experimental documentary, and more than deserving of the many accolades it has received over the past year.
Billed as “an existential journey from genesis to extinction,” the film documents the slow decay of the monumental icebergs that dominate the arctic landscape. Set to the hypnotic tune of John Luther Adams’ award-winning classical composition Become Ocean, it stands as a poetic mediation on the existential fragility of the human condition in the face of the majestic forces of nature. Recalling the artistic collaboration between Koyaanisqatsi director Godfrey Reggio and composer Philip Glass, Ice Breath draws power from its more singular focus. By compelling the audience into a deep consideration of the deceptively simple juxtaposition of sky, ice, and water, Alecu somehow evokes a feeling of eons passing in a matter of just a few scant minutes.
Putting his photographic background to excellent use, Alecu (choosing to shoot in black and white) paints his subjects in a stark palette of white tones that is shockingly rich and textured. His images are a pleasure to behold, transforming these natural formations into sculptural compositions recalling the works of Henry Moore, illuminated by otherworldly shafts of sunlight reminiscent of the arctic works of painter Lawren Harris.
As the film unfurls, the comfort of nature’s rhythms begins to dissipate, and the viewer somehow feels the temperature rising as the menacing black water lapping at the icebergs’ shores increasingly dominates the frame. What once appeared irrevocably connected breaks apart, scattering across the widening expanse of an increasingly choppy sea. As the icy meat drops from their surface, bony, skeletal formations emerge, and fissures appear like scars across their skins. All the while, a relentless and unsettling sun beats down, dissolving their cold sharpness and leaving only the softness of total devolution, and a feeling of palpable grief for what has been lost.
A worthy companion piece to the super-sized Bestiari, Erbari, Lapidari – also released in 2024 –Ice Breath similarly evokes the insignificance of humanity in the grander scheme of terrestrial history. And like D’Anolfi and Parenti, Alecu is preternaturally talented at presenting his natural subjects in all their deserved drama and grandeur. If nothing else, he has produced a set of breathtakingly primal images of icebergs that are now already likely gone forever. More than freezing a moment in time, he casts his gaze into an uncertain future, compelling the audience to contemplate the fate of our less considered terrestrial companions alongside our very own.
Luckily for us, this piece does not spell the end of Alecu’s audiovisual experimentation. Become Ocean, as it happens, forms just one part of a musical trilogy diving into the essential mysteries of nature (alongside companion works Become Desert and Become River). Taking these on as further inspiration, Alecu is currently at work on a companion piece set to John Luther Adams’ Become Desert, to be shot in the deserts of Namibia. If the work approaches the achievement of this first effort, we are surely in for something special. I can’t wait.
Ice Breath was awarded Best Documentary Feature at the 2024 New Renaissance Film Festival.
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