'Thin Ice' virtual reality, produced in Adelaide, Tim Jarvis as presenter, opens in 2021 at South Australian Museum
Adelaide-based environmental scientist and adventurer Tim Jarvis is presenter for 20-minute Thin Ice virtual reality experience .
The world premiere of Thin Ice VR virtual reality recreation – combining Ernest Shackleton’s 1914 Antarctic expedition with the 21st Century threat from climate change – was to be presented by the Adelaide Film Festival in 2021-22 at the South Australian Museum – the home of many Antarctic expedition artefacts.
Produced by Adelaide animation and design studio Monkeystack and Shackleton Epic Expedition, Thin Ice VR was a 20-minute world-first historical recreation documentary virtual reality experience presented by Adelaide-based environmental scientist and global adventurer Tim Jarvis, one of the executive producers with Justin Wight and Rhys Sandery.
Jarvis, an authority on Ernest Shackleton and his leadership style, in 2013 repeated Shackleton’s voyage and mountain crossing in the first coast-to-coast trek across the Antarctic. Film documentaries have come out of most Jarvis expeditions, with Shackleton: Death or Glory (2013) and Mawson: Life and death in Antarctica (2008) the most widely screened internationally.
In 2016, Jarvis won the Bettison & James Award, from the Jim Bettison and Helen James Foundation and administered by the Adelaide Fim Festival, for individuals who “have contributed exemplary and inspiring lifelong body of work of high achievement and benefit.”
Director of Thin Ice VR was James Calvert from Torrens University Australia, a major partner in the virtual relaity project developed and financed by South Australian Film Corporation, Adelaide Film Festival Investment Fund and Screen Australia. It was also supported by: Kathmandu, One Ocean Expeditions, Imagine Room Group and Documentary Australia Foundation.
Calvert said that Thin Ice VR “lets us all walk directly in Shackleton’s footsteps. However, the story extends beyond that of Shackleton’s, to that of the plight of the greater Antarctic region –a place under threat from climate change. Thin Ice VR gives us all a chance to experience the wonder of this place with our own eyes, where we can see for ourselves the impact of climate change over the last 100 years.”