Synopsis
What does it mean to represent the visual traces of environmental destruction? How to communicate the temporality of global heating in a time-based medium? These are the questions tackled by this experimental documentary exploring permafrost thaw and its effects on diverse ecosystems.
A word from Tënk
Situated between scientific documentary and sensory experimental cinema, The Great Thaw is a melancholic and mesmerizing epic that reveals the contours of our ecosystems and humanity’s impact on them. In this audiovisual work of the Anthropocene era, the notion of traces is masterfully explored by filmmakers-performers Michaela Grill and Karl Lemieux. The viewer is quickly led to reflect on existential questions: What does humanity leave behind on this already fragile Earth? Are we aware of the gravity of what we leave? Are we truly conscious of our individual impact? The cinematography is larger than life, while the reality it depicts is profoundly alarming. Permafrost melts before our eyes, just as the future darkens. Grill and Lemieux’s strength lies in making us feel the effects of climate change visually, skillfully alternating between sublime imagery and stark, unsettling facts. A grand, universal work—essential to experience in today’s context.
Émilie Poirier
Head programmer - Short Films
Festival du nouveau cinéma
