If glaciers could talk, what would they say to us?
In the KEEN Effect film "Glacier Speak: Listening to Matanuska," artist and filmmaker Max Romey receives a powerful message when sketching the Matanuska Glacier near his home in Anchorage, Alaska. Check out the trailer above, and then watch the full film, premiering at the Kendal Mountain Film Festival, Nov. 20-23.
“The world's a really big place, and it’s hard to see the changes happening all around us,” Max says. “With my grandmother’s sketches from four or five decades ago, I began to notice these really interesting things happening – by going to the same places, painting with the same stuff, and sitting in the same spot, it’s impossible not to see changes within that time. And in a way, that’s the whole point. To stop, connect with nature, and see what it is reflecting back at you.”
As a climate advocate with Protect Our Winters, Max hopes his way of seeing the world through watercolor can make complicated environmental issues easier to grasp for all of us – even something as "enormous and really scary” as climate change.
"I’m just beginning to understand it all myself, but I'm hoping that this story can show people the beauty of being an imperfect advocate. And how sometimes just loving a place is enough of a start to the journey to beginning to protect it." - Max Romey
