Acid Horizon (Ivan Hurzeler, 2016): USA

Reviewed by Anton Jacobsson, Viewed at the Santa Barbara Film Festival 2018.

Acid Horizon is a documentary directed by Ivan Hurzeler. Hurzeler started his career as a video artist and produced work for galleries in New York City. But later in his career he started to make documentaries, his most famous work is a short film called Famous Person Talent Agency which got selected for the Sundance Film Festival. Then he later started make documentaries about the environment and now premiered at the Santa Barbara Film Festival 2018 with his film Acid Horizon.

In this documentary we get to follow Dr. Erik Cordes and his crew on a adventure to search for super corals in the deep ocean. This super corals will survive ocean acidification and supposedly help prevent future extinctions. We get to follow some of the crew going down to the bottom of the sea in the Alvin Submersible and explore unexplored areas of the sea. Then see how they use a kind of arm to pick up corals with and making it up to the surface with that and themselves intact.

This documentary was made in a really creative way and was not only focusing on the environmental problems but also focusing on the people that was on this ship. Hurzeler wanted to show their everyday life and also give them some credit for being on this trip. But also Dr. Dordes also wanted the documentary to change the view of how people look at scientists, that they are not really heartless , cold and lonely people.

I really liked this documentary because it didn’t get boring, it was not only about how we as humans needs to save the world but it was also about people. Just to see some shots of them playing ping pong or when the divers jumped from the submersible with gopros and making backflips just made this documentary feel more real. I really like this element that you as a viewer felt that you were there on the journey with them.