Storyville
Season 15 Episode 14 - Last Days of the Arctic: Capturing the Faces of the North
Ragnar Axelsson, known as Rax, is a photograher for Iceland's largest newspaper. This documentary follows him on his life's mission, to capture the human faces of climate change by photographing the vanishing lifestyles of the people of the north. Rax is among the most celebrated photographers in the world and his series of photographs, Faces of the North, is a living document of the dying cultures of the far northern reaches of the planet, mainly Icelandic farmers, fishermen and the great hunters of Greenland. 'It was really only one photograph that started me off,' he says. 'An old man in a rowing boat and his dog on a skerry. I thought to myself, these men are vanishing. If I don't photograph them now, no one will remember them and no one will know that they ever existed.' Rax spent his childhood summers on an isolated farm on the southern coast of Iceland, where the farmers lived off of the land as countless generations had before them. As a child he was enraptured by the landscape and the interactions between man and nature. Twenty-five years ago, his fascination with people who try to survive in extreme circumstances took him from Iceland to Greenland - a place which has continually inspired him to return. His photo essays of the hunters of Greenland are legendary. Rax could well have been a hunter himself - and we watch him as he stalks his images and strikes at the opportune moment. Fascinated by stories of half-forgotten people who have adapted to unspeakably harsh conditions, Rax is now documenting them as they cope with extreme changes to those conditions as the result of climate change. Last Days of the Arctic is a celebration of the photographer and his subjects, an elegy for a disappearing landscape and the people who inhabit it.
Episodes in Season 15
Secrets of the Tribe
85 min
Pablo's Hippos
85 min
Sex, Death and the Gods
85 min
Meet the Climate Sceptics
85 min
American Idol - Reagan
85 min
Afghan Cricket Club - Out of the Ashes
85 min
The Man Who Fooled the Nazis
85 min
Kidult - Marathon Boy
85 min
Kidult: P-Star Rising
85 min
Kidult: Cuban Punch-Up - The Boys who Fought for Castro
85 min
China's Bleak House
85 min
Innocent! Paco & the Struggle for Justice
85 min
Knocking on Heaven's Door
85 min
Last Days of the Arctic: Capturing the Faces of the North
85 min
Pol Pot's Executioner: Welcome to Hell
85 min
Amnesty! When They Are All Free
85 min
Fight to Save the World: Sergio
85 min
Prosecutor
85 min
Law of the Dragon - Husband and Wife
85 min
Law of the Dragon - Love Thy Neighbour
85 min
Law of the Dragon - Death of an Only Child
85 min
Law of the Dragon - Mother and Son
85 min
Murder on a Sunday Morning
85 min
The Thin Blue Line
85 min
The Billion Dollar Art Heist
85 min
Client 9 - The Call Girl and the Governor
85 min
Deadline: The New York Times
85 min
Riding Giants
85 min
Bobby Fischer: Genius and Madman
85 min
The Interrupters - How to Stop a Riot
85 min
Inside Job
85 min
Barbados at the Races - Bajan Born and Bred
85 min
Barbados at the Races - The Jockey's Prayer
85 min
Barbados at the Races - Run Cat Run!
85 min
Barbados at the Races - The Favourite
85 min
