Rice U. researchers’ documentary on melting glacier to premiere Aug. 17 in Iceland

Rice University
Office of Public Affairs / News & Media Relations

MEDIA ADVISORY

David Ruth
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david@rice.edu

Amy McCaig
713-348-6777
amym@rice.edu

Rice U. researchers’ documentary on melting glacier to premiere Aug. 17 in Iceland

HOUSTON – (July 30, 2018) – A new documentary film produced by Rice University anthropologists about what was one of the smallest glaciers in Iceland will premiere Aug. 17 in Reykjavik, Iceland.

The film’s title, “Not Ok,” refers to the nickname for Okjökull, which in 2014became the first of Iceland’s glaciers to lose its “glacier” title. Scientists fear all of the island nation’s 400-plus glaciers will be gone by 2200.

The film tells the story of the small glacier that sat on a mountain for more than 1,000 years. It was directed by Professor Dominic Boyer and Associate Professor Cymene Howe, both in Rice’s Department of Anthropology.

The day after the world premiere at Bíó Paradís Cinema, the film’s creators will host an “Un-Glacier Tour” to view the remnants of Okjökull. Both events are free and open to the public and members of the media.

WHAT: World premiere of “Not Ok,” a documentary about the melting of Okjökull glacier and how the residents of Iceland feel about it, and the “Un-Glacier Tour” of the remnants of the glacier.

WHERE: Bíó Paradís Cinema (premiere location) and the base of the Ok mountain (tour location) in Reykjavík.

WHEN: 5 p.m. Aug. 17 (premiere) and 9 a.m. Aug. 18 (tour).

Howe and Boyer are available to discuss the film and how global warming is affecting the Nordic country and other places around the world. The film was narrated by former Reykjavík Mayor Jón Gnarr, who acts as the voice of the mountain on which Ok was located. Gnarr was a writer-in-residence at Rice’s Center for Energy and Environmental Research in the Human Sciences (CENHS) in 2015 and 2017.

Howe and Boyer said the purpose of the film was to talk to Iceland residents to gauge their feelings on what is happening to the country’s glaciers and get a sense of their responsibility, loss and reflection on the moment.

“Glaciers have been a distinctive part of Iceland’s countryside since humans settled on the island over 1,200 years ago,” said Boyer, who is director of the CENHS. “However, the country’s glaciers have been melting steadily since the early 20th century and are now losing roughly 11 billion tons of ice per year.”

“Iceland’s glaciers supply the country’s rivers and provide fresh water for the population,” Howe said. “The melting of the glaciers will have a major impact on the country’s industries, everything from fishing to tourism.”

The North Atlantic country welcomes approximately 2 million tourists every year and is home to approximately 340,000 residents. Many tourists flock to the island country because of the natural beauty and the opportunity to see the glaciers firsthand, Boyer said.

“We created this film about a small glacier in a small country in order to bring the huge and often abstract problem of climate change back down to a human scale so that we can better understand how it touches our everyday lives,” Howe said.

To RSVP for the film premiere or tour, or for more details on either, visit https://www.notokmovie.com/.

Media interested in attending either event or interviewing Boyer or Howe may contact Amy McCaig, senior media relations specialist at Rice, at 713-348-6777 or amym@rice.edu.

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This news release can be found online at news.rice.edu.

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Photo link: http://news.rice.edu/files/2018/07/OK-1o5tg6h.gif

Photo credit: https://www.notokmovie.com/

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