Encounters at the End of the World (2007)

Director:

Werner Herzog

Writer:

Werner Herzog (written by)

Release Date:

17 October 2008 (Spain)

Genre:

Documentary

Plot:

Filmmaker Werner Herzog travels to Antarctica, looking to capture its natural beauty and investigate the characters there.

Plot Keywords:

Penguin | Antarctica | Luggage | Hand | Volcanologist

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 2 wins & 6 nominations

Cast

Werner Herzog	...	Narrator
Scott Rowland	...	Himself - Transportation Dept.
Stefan Pashov	...	Himself - Philosopher, Forklift Driver
Doug MacAyeal	...	Himself - Glaciologist (as Douglas MacAyeal)
Ryan Andrew Evans	...	Himself - Filmmaker, Cook (as Ryan A. Evans)
Kevin Emery	...	Himself - Survival School Instructor
Olav T. Oftedal	...	Himself - Nutritional Ecologist
Regina Eisert	...	Herself - Physiologist
David R. Pacheco Jr.	...	Himself - Journeyman Plumber
Samuel S. Bowser	...	Himself - Cell Biologist
Jan Pawlowski	...	Himself - Zoologist
William Jirsa	...	Himself - Linguist, Computer Expert
Karen Joyce	...	Herself - Traveler, Computer Expert
Libor Zicha	...	Himself - Utility Mechanic
Ashrita Furman	...	Himself - Multiple World Record Holder
David Ainley	...	Himself - Marine Ecologist
William McIntosh	...	Himself - Volcanologist, Geochronologist
Clive Oppenheimer	...	Himself - Volcanologist
Peter Gorham	...	Himself - Physicist
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Ernest Shackleton	...	Himself (archive footage)

Directed by
Werner Herzog

Writing credits
Werner Herzog		(written by)

Produced by
Randall M. Boyd	....	supervising producer
Phil Fairclough	....	executive producer
Dave Harding	....	executive producer (as David S. Harding)
Julian Hobbs	....	executive producer
Henry Kaiser	....	producer
Andrea Meditch	....	executive producer
Erik Nelson	....	executive producer
Tree Wright	....	associate producer (as Tree Leyburn)

Original Music by
Henry Kaiser
David Lindley

Cinematography by
Peter Zeitlinger

Film Editing by
Joe Bini

Production Management
Jessica DeJong	....	production manager
Jane Root	....	executive in charge of production

Art Department
Douglas Martin	....	motion graphics
Bruce McCall	....	original artwork

Sound Department
Stephen Hart	....	recording engineer
Werner Herzog	....	sound
Michael Klinger	....	post-production mixer
Josh Michael	....	recording assistant
Robert Noone	....	location sound
Michael Paul	....	location sound
Douglas Quin	....	sound designer
D.D. Stenehjem	....	sound designer

Visual Effects by
Christopher Dusendschon	....	digital imaging supervisor: iO FILM
Iain Marcks	....	digital imaging technician: iO FILM (as Iain Stasukevich)

Camera and Electrical Department
James Creevy	....	grip
Jane Gray	....	grip
Henry Kaiser	....	underwater photographer

Editorial Department
Danica Barnes	....	on-line editor
Bartholomew Burcham	....	assistant editor
Herrianne Cayabyab	....	assistant on-line editor
Ryan Delk	....	first assistant editor
Colin Hatton	....	post-production coordinator
Brian Hutchings	....	colorist: Alpha Dogs, Inc.
David W. Ryan	....	assistant editor (uncredited)

Music Department
Jen Baker	....	musician
Joe Bini	....	music editor
Danielle DeGruttola	....	musician
Stephen Hart	....	score mixer
Stephen Hart	....	score recording engineer
Henry Kaiser	....	music producer
Cheryl Leonard	....	musician
David Lindley	....	music editor
Damon Smith	....	musician
William Winant	....	musician

Other crew
Paul De Cham	....	post facilities manager
Ryan Andrew Evans	....	production assistant (as Ryan Evans)
Jason Farrell	....	supplier: video equipment
Patricia Jackson	....	location manager
Lola Mitchell	....	production coordinator
Jane Priester	....	production coordinator
Cynthia Shapiro	....	business affairs
Robert Smits	....	supplier: video equipment

Thanks
Lloyd Austin	....	thanks
Samuel S. Bowser	....	thanks (as Samuel Bowser)
Ed Brawley	....	thanks
Steve Clabuesch	....	thanks
Dug Coons	....	thanks
Art Devries	....	thanks
Roger Ebert	....	dedicatee
Guy Guthridge	....	thanks
Kevin Hoefling	....	thanks
Elaine Hood	....	thanks
David T. Huang	....	thanks (as David T. Huang)
Philip Kyle	....	thanks
Greg Prian	....	thanks
Rob Robbins	....	thanks
Kim Stanley Robinson	....	thanks
Kim Silverman	....	thanks

Production Companies

• Discovery Films (presents)
• Creative Differences Productions
• Discovery Channel (in association with)
• Discovery Communications

Distributors

• Benelux Film Distributors (2009) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• Discovery Films (2008) (USA) (theatrical)
• Image Entertainment (2008) (USA) (theatrical)
• THINKFilm (2008) (USA) (theatrical)
• Against Gravity (2008) (Poland) (all media)
• Dutch FilmWorks (DFW) (2009) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• Dutch FilmWorks (DFW) (2009) (Netherlands) (DVD) (Blu-ray)
• Dutch FilmWorks (DFW) (2011) (Netherlands) (DVD) (Blu-ray) (Prestige Collection)
• Dutch FilmWorks (DFW) (2011) (Netherlands) (DVD) (Prestige Collection)
• Image Entertainment (2008) (USA) (DVD)
• Polyband (2010) (Germany) (DVD)
• Revolver Entertainment (2009) (UK) (all media)
• Seville Pictures (2008) (Canada) (DVD)

Other Companies

• Alpha Dogs  post-production facilities
• Dolby Laboratories  sound mix
• Soundtrack  trailer

Also Known As:

Runtime:

99 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Spanish

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:G | Canada:G (Alberta/British Columbia/Manitoba/Ontario/Québec) | Netherlands:6 | Singapore:G | Australia:G | UK:U

Filming Locations:

Antarctica

Company:

Discovery Films

Trivia:

Werner Herzog dedicated the film to Roger Ebert, who he calls a true "warrior of cinema". Due to the dedication Ebert could not review the film, but he wrote a complimentary letter to Herzog and later published it.

Quotes:

Peter Gorham:The neutrino is the most ridiculous particle you could imagine. A billion neutrinos went through my nose as we were talking. A trillion, a trillion of them went through my nose just now. And they did nothing to me. They passed through all of the matter around us continuously in a huge...

Movie Connections:

Edited from Them! (1954)

Soundtrack:

Tsmindao Gmerto Orovela

Not your average science documentary

Encounters at the End of the World is a quirky and interesting film, definitely a departure from your average dry science documentary or eye-candy nature film, though it has elements of both.

It focuses predominantly on the odd collection of people drawn to live in an Antarctic research station, and to a slightly lesser degree on the oddness of the region itself, and the bizarre bits of scientific trivia that can be found there. Then there the bonus meanderings about the ultimate doom of humanity and whether we originally emerged from the sea onto land to escape the "horror" of marine ecosystems.

Many of its parts are fascinating, but for me, it didn't quite come together as a whole. It drifted in a lot of different directions, but seemed overall to be lacking in focus a bit. There were also a couple of elements that disturbed me a little - one was the inconsistency of talking about how humanity is destroying itself one moment, and then bashing "tree huggers and whale huggers" the next. I guess it's OK to notice that we're damaging the world, but not to try and do something about it? The other was that in some cases he seemed to be going out of his way to depict the people he interviewed in embarrassing ways, with things like leaving the camera lingering on them after the interview appeared to be finished, as they stood nervously, apparently trying to figure out if it was over or not.

But on the whole I would recommend it -- the flaws are offset by some impressive visuals (especially the underwater footage), dry humour, interesting ideas to ponder, and a really great soundtrack by Henry Kaiser and David Lindley, which work very well with the oddness of the content.