Saw Encounters at the End of the World, a documentary by Herzog about researchers and just people in general who live on the south pole. Herzog explains that he's eager to go to this remote place. He has a fascination with nature, and its supreme indifference to us. An enthusiastic fan of science in general, he visits lots of scientists and asks them utterly bizarre questions such "do penguins ever go insane?" To be fair however, the scientists give as good as they get, telling strange stories of linguistics and physics, the beginning of life and the universe. We meet a plumber who claims to be descended from Mayan royalty. He holds up his hands as proof.
The scientists are great oddballs but we also get to see Herzog indulge some of his almost spiritual obsession with nature. He shows underwater footage shot by scuba divers and plays unearthly choral songs over it. The divers refer to the area beneath the ice as "the cathedral" we hear, and the world down there is vast, strange, filled with perfectly still creatures, slowly moving about in supercooled water. Most impressive are the utterly alien noises that seals apparently make underwater. (have a listen, it's crazy!)
We also hear Herzog shake his head at modern civilization. Calling the yoga studios at the base camp "abominations" and wryly interviewing a cafeteria worker who mans the Frosty Boy ice cream machine. Again and again the scientists beat the drum of global warming. Many of them have given up entirely. Herzog tells us that most of them think that mankind is already doomed.
Indeed, in spite of the beauty of the south pole and the alien inhabitants, the scientists and people are the real stars. Each is a free-spirit or oddball and quite proud of that fact. Herzog seems delighted to display them.
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