Anchorage filmmaker Jan-Pieter Welt has continued work on “2nd Order Science,” a documentary begun in 1992 that tracks changing perceptions among scientists about climate change.
Welt talked to academics about global climate change and recorded their thoughts at a time when the juggernaut of sea ice retreat and rapid warming had barely begun.
“Now, 15 years later, we’re going back to re-interview the same people to see what they’ve learned since,” Welt writes in an email message.
Welt has posted a 31-minute preview of the film online.
The original inspiration? “It was obvious to us in the late eighties that the shit was going to hit the climate change fan in the not-too-distant future,” he writes.
So far, Welt and his team have interviewed 25 people, including Dr. Ted DeLaca, vice provost for research at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. A benefit screening of “2nd Order Science” and another Welt film may be in the works for later in the spring in Anchorage. Stay tuned.
Welt says he needs about $700,000 to finish the climate film and has been filling out “multitudinous grant applications.”
Welt is a filmmaker trained at the New York University Graduate Institute of Film. He’s shot commercials and corporate pieces, and films with Norman Mailer. His company, Iceman Films, has produced six films about Alaska over the past 10 years.
They include “Sze Bie” (decrying the manner in which Alaskan Natives have been treated by the Oil Industry), “The Color of Gold” (the Gold Rush), and the feature theatrical film “FLORIDA” (set in Florida but shot entirely in Alaska.)