Fest Track On Sirk TV Film Review: AFTER ANTARCTICA [Camden International Film Festival 2021 - Virtual]
The aspect of perspective especially in the element of time is always an unique path depending on the level of one's experience. For Will Steger, who has done an exceptional amount of trekking and exploring, few of his accomplishments stand up to the multi-national Trans-Antarctica crossing that he did with men from 5 other countries to bring awareness to the aspect that Antarctica should be left alone and not mined back in 1989. "After Antarctica" parallels Steger's later life as he takes on a smaller trek in the Artic as a form of Zen meditation and reconnection. The way he explains it gives it a sense of both adherence to the land, some regrets but mostly enlightenment. Steger is well spoken man but also specific in details. He likes being among people but finds his solace along. The footage from the 1989 crossing taken by the accompanying film crew back in 1989 is distinctly interesting considering some of the footage probably never made it to broadcast. Tasha Van Zandt, who has worked with National Geographic and probably has seen many many interesting people chose Steger as her subject and the way her and her cinematographer capture some of the modern day elements bring to mind the path of say the one in "The Revenant" except more subdued.
A couple shots are inherently metaphorical including one of him canoeing on a small trickle of a river that leads to something much deeper and yet this is where he is most afraid. Steger lives and has lived most of his life in his self made compound in upper Minnesota (Ely) and that perspective is wonderfully textured. Van Zandt captures moments of still life without being intrusive. Even in the trek, she tries to capture him alone on the landscape although she is there with him. It is a meditation of purpose but also intention. There are also some really human moments in the footage that cover both sides of the spectrum in the archive footage which reflects on Steger's modern life from the moment of psychosis in one of his team, members to the near loss of one of his comrades captured on a white out. "After Antarctica" is not rewriting the text on the texture of stamina or path but it does show one man's perspective which, for a moment in the global scale, defined a changing path. As they crossed the South Pole, the Berlin Wall fell and the dominoes of perspective changed yet again through a force of nature. B+
By Tim Wassberg
