Jenna Outcalt
Staff Writer
When Andri Snær Magnason set out to tell the story of “Time and Water,” he didn’t want it to just be about science that could be found through a quick online search. Instead, he wanted the documentary on glaciers and climate change, based on his book, to show “more about the personal, generational effects of this change.”
The Chautauqua Climate Change Initiative will host a screening of “Time and Water” and a discussion with the filmmaker via Zoom at 4:30 p.m. today in Chautauqua Cinema.
Magnason wrote “On Time and Water” in 2019. The book tells a multigenerational story of glaciers melting in Iceland, weaving in science, legends and personal stories from Magnason’s grandparents who explored the glacier. Since then, it has been published in more than 30 languages and inspired director Sara Dosa to reach out to Magnason about basing a documentary on it.
Magnason said the documentary worked well because “much of [the] book was based on visual material.” Magnason stars in the documentary, linking climate change and threatened glaciers to stories of his own family.
He said one of the best ways to grasp the true effects of a changing world is through storytelling, which is why he decided to use his grandparents’ story as a pivotal piece of the book and documentary.
“In a strange way, it was easier to connect to the future by using my grandparents to connect to the past,” Magnason said.
He emphasized that climate change may seem like it’s happening slowly, but humanity’s actions now will have a massive impact on future generations.
“When it comes to my generation, we see these glaciers are collapsing on a human time scale,” he said.
In a 2020 TED Talk, Magnason said the glaciers seemed “eternal” back when his grandparents would explore them.
“My grandmother just turned 96, and now we know that many glaciers will be gone within the time someone born today becomes as old as my grandmother is now,” he said in the TED Talk.
Magnason said when he asked his grandmother if 100 years was a long time, she responded that it wasn’t and she felt like she “was traveling the glaciers yesterday.”
“2100 is not a distant future. It’s basically tomorrow, because in the mind of those people, 2020 will be yesterday,” he said in the TED Talk. “And I’m quite sure that we want them to look at our time with pride and gratitude, because we knew what was happening and we know what needs to be done, and we actually, eventually, did the right thing.”
Magnason said Chautauqua is “one of the better audiences in the world” for this film.
“I hope they will see their own generational legacy and what they can do,” he said.
Magnason said it was easy to become overwhelmed making a documentary about such a heavy topic, but he also found hope in the process. He did not want to create “a farewell letter to the world,” and he credited the director with how the documentary balances reality, which can seem bleak, with optimism for the future.
“It’s still very much in our hands,” Magnason said.
