Articles and Press
Science in Action Films as the Blockbusters of SciComm (SciComm Bites, August 30, 2023)
Antarctic Edge Follows Scientists Grappling with Climate Change (LA Times, May 14, 2015)
In Antarctic Edge, a Region of Retreating Ice (New York Times)
Film Review of Antarctic Edge: 70° South (Earth Island Journal, April 17, 2015)
Dena Seidel’s Fantastic Antarctic Edge: 70° South (Reel News Daily, April 17, 2015)
Film Review of Antarctic Edge: 70° South (Film Forward, May 6, 2015)
Film Review of Antarctic Edge: 70° South (The Los Angeles Beat, May 15, 2015)
BFA in Digital Filmmaking Launches at Rutgers Fall 2015 (Rutgers)
Passages: The making of The War After (Rutgers Magazine, March 11, 2016)
Selected Quotes
“Dena Seidel’s documentary not only offers rare, beautifully shot footage of West Antarctic Pennisula’s rapidly changing environment, studying the connections that reveal the concrete impact of climate change; it is also a one-of-a-kind collaboration between the Rutgers University Film Bureau and the Rutgers Institute for Marine and Coastal Sciences and contains interviews and insights from some of the world’s leading ocean researchers. It is a fascinating look at their life’s work trying to understand how to maintain our planet.” – Tory Kamen and Becca Rose, Indiewire
“Like an Imax film minus the giant screen, ‘Antarctic Edge: 70° South’ compellingly follows oceanographic scientists as they grapple with the escalating effects of climate change. Stirringly shot, intimately and vividly documented, it is a moving portrait of individuals who devote their lives to understanding the environmental shifts that all too soon might manifest themselves on our own altered shorelines.” – Michael Rechtshaffen, Los Angeles Times
“There aren’t many uncharted areas left on the globe, but ‘Antarctic Edge: 70° South’ takes viewers to a spot where surveying is so scarce that the destinations may diverge from their locations on a map. Exploring that terrain could mean getting caught in ice for a month. ‘Antarctic Edge’ illustrates its points effectively, providing vivid evidence of how shrinking ice at the South Pole affects climates across the globe.” – Ben Kenigsberg, The New York Times
“Beautifully filmed… Director Dena Seidel and her crew have made one of the most informative films shot on location in the polar regions since Robert Flaherty’s groundbreaking Eskimo epic Nanook of the North. What most distinguishes the film is its often exquisite, eye popping cinematography of the most remote, inaccessible places on Earth, where it takes longer to travel to than it does to reach the moon. The breathtaking images of cavorting elephant seals, penguins pecking at camera lenses, humpbacks riding the waves, and, last but not least, the empty polar scenery, make the strongest case for protecting these species, waters, air and land imperiled by a climate change.” – Ed Rampell, Earth Island Journal
“Fantastic…fills a unique space in the lore of the least populated continent on the planet.” – Jeremy Harmon, Reel News Daily
“Antarctic Edge: 70° South is the scariest, most frightening film you will see this year. It is also arguably the most important film that you will see in this or any other year.” – Stephen J Finn, Examiner
“More poetic than polemical, this cinematic call to action combines thrilling natural wonders with engaging glimpses of scientists at work…an extraordinarily beautiful and important documentary.” – Jennifer Merin, Womens E-News