The Exit Glacier is located along the Kenai Peninsula Borough in southern Alaska.
Portions of the glacier are accessible in the Kenai Fjords National Park.
Since its edges were first marked in 1917, the Exit Glacier is receded substantially
and continues to shrink as global temperatures increase.
While the glacier was once prominently viewable from the nearby town of Seward, it has melted
so much that now it can only be viewed by hiking into the Kenai Fjords.
Recent climate projection models suggest that the melting of Exit and other glaciers will
continue at even higher rates in the 21st century.
Great.
Do you want to do it once more just so we have it on the tape?
Do it all down.
Two years ago I was going to begin shooting a film on the lingering effects of global
climate change on glaciers in the northern hemisphere.
I'm from the south and all through my childhood I heard stories about global warming and how
melting ice caps would eventually cause sea levels to rise, submerging entire cities
and devastating farmland.
Ma'aunt even keeps a life preserver in her attic, which is intended to remind her that
her waterfront property may soon be submerged.
She says she'll never allow her life preserver to be taken out.
I had just gotten a grant to make my film and I decided to aimlessly wander around
an old attic.
I found a broom and started sweeping, thinking about how my footprints of dust upon the floor
were like my carbon footprints upon the earth's atmosphere.
I opened a nearby refrigerator and realized doing so would warm everything inside, causing
the bits of frost to drip down into a puddle on the floor.
I thought about how similar this was to the glaciers.
Finally, I headed north to try and begin my film.
I arrived at Exit Glacier in the Kenai Fjords National Park in mid-August.
It was a rainy day and I soon began to feel as though I were at a funeral.
Occasionally one of the tourists would walk in front of my camera, but I didn't mind.
The whole place had a majestic beauty to it, but it was a somber kind of beauty, the kind
you'd rather not speak about, though you can't stop looking at it.
As I filmed, I kept noticing one young woman taking photographs.
I couldn't understand why, but I was drawn to her somehow.
I began to forget about Exit Glacier and wanted to film her instead.
It had been a long time since I had been seriously involved with the woman, and I had been thinking
about starting a new romance for years.
I was hoping that heading north to film the Exit Glacier would help get my mind off the
idea, but I seemed to keep focusing on how I could meet women instead.
Starting a relationship had always been dangerous for me.
I had always sensed the real need to do so, but become so fearful that I might slip and
fall to my death whenever I try to find romantic love.
Eventually, I found myself standing next to the young woman with a camera.
I was drawn to her and thought maybe I could approach her with my camera to make it easier
to start a conversation.
I didn't know what to say, so instead I kept filming her as though my camera would do the
talking for me.
I kept watching the numbers go by on my viewfinder, hoping they would give me a charming opening
remark.
Hi there.
Hi.
I'm making a movie about the Exit Glacier.
Pardon?
Are you French?
Yes.
French.
Yes, I'm French.
No, I don't speak French.
I'm from South Carolina.
From...
Ah.
Do you know South Carolina?
Uh, we?
That's great.
My name is Ross.
What's your name?
Good to meet you.
Hi there.
What's your name?
My name is Chloe.
Hi, Chloe.
Hi.
What do you think about the Exit Glacier?
Um, it's beautiful, and it's...
As Chloe was talking to me, I accidentally switched off the sound on my camera, but
kept filming.
Her whole face was lit up with interest, and I quickly found myself falling for her and
losing track of what she was saying.
I tried to move on and film more for my documentary, but I couldn't seem to stop filming her.
There was something about Chloe that I was drawn to, and I kept thinking of ways to ask
her if she would stay with me at Kenai while I made my film, except that I didn't want
to make my film anymore.
I just wanted to be with Chloe.
I began to realize that my film was a failure, but whenever I thought about abandoning it,
I had to keep filming just to stay near Chloe.
I thought about how the melting glacier symbolized my own life, slowly slipping away and receding
before I could make something of it.
I wondered what good romantic love would be if I were submerged in the rising ocean without
a life preserver.
I thought about how the Exit Glacier and I were both drifting away without a trace.
And I thought about how much it would cost to drive back to South Carolina.
Russ, you need more passion.
You need to be passionate about going to the glacier.
You need to say, here I am.
I'm at the glacier, and I'm full of passion, and I just can't stand it anymore.
Russ, that's what women love.
That's what women want.
They want passion.
Put down your camera, Russ.
This is for real, Russ.
This is happening.
This is real.
This is real, Russ.
This isn't some movie about the glacier, Russ.
This is Russ.
This is what women want, Russ.
They want passion.
