Acid Horizon (Ivan Hurzeler, 2016): USA

Reviewed by Rasmus Nilsson. Viewed at the Riviera Theatre, Santa Barbara.

Acid Horizon is just as much about Dr. Erik Cordes and his crews chase for the “super coral“, as it is about being a scientist and being a part of a crew isolated from society. The super coral that they are searching for, known as ophelia, is supposedly able to survive ocean acidification. Which Dr. Cordes considers to be a massive threat. The secret why this coral might be able to survive ocean acidification makes ophelia extremely important to Dr. Cordes and his colleagues. The audience gets to follow the crew throughout their tough journey far away from civilisation to find this magic coral and save the world.

The soundtrack and footage blended perfectly, especially the underwater scenes. The mix of deep-sea footage and the almost psychedelic music went very well together and made for a very pleasant viewing experience where I lost my self several times. This is something that could have easily been very overwhelming and boring but I personally think that they managed to balance it well throughout the film.

The film tries to not be a boring documentary and does it well. At times it doesn’t even feel like a documentary. They accomplished by building narrative and giving a lot of attention to the crew members. The movie also focuses less on facts and information compared to the stereotypical documentary and replaced a lot of that with jokes and funny moments from their journey. In a QnA after the screening, the filmmaker Ivan Hurzeler said that they used this approach because they wanted it to be viewed by a broader audience and not only the people already engaged in the topic. Such as scientists and other members of the community.