THIS COLD LIFE Screens for Free April 10th at Webster University

THIS COLD LIFE, directed by Darren Mann screens Tuesday April 10 at 7:30 at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium (470 East Lockwood) as part of its St. Louis Earth Day Film Series. This is a FREE screening.

 
“Everyone is a little depressed,” admits one of the residents of Longyearbyen, the remote town profiled in THIS COLD LIFE, Darren Mann’s entertaining documentary. And they have a right to be, given that Longyearbyen — the northernmost town in the world, located north of Norway and some 300 miles from the North Pole — endures three months of total darkness as well as similar periods of 24-hour sun, and the temperature can reach 40 degrees below. Oh, did I mention that its roughly 2,200 citizens are outnumbered by polar bears? It’s no wonder many of them turn to drink.

This Cold Life takes an intimate look at the colorful characters who choose to live in the isolation of the world’s northernmost town, Longyearbyen, which is situated high above Norway, 300 miles from the North Pole. Living with three months of total darkness and three months of 24-hour sun, residents face the persistent threat of depression, a problem compounded by the fact that Longyearbyen is a town in crisis. Its longtime job base, the coal industry, is going bankrupt, and global climate change is a very real threat to the region. Yet roughly 2,200 people from more than 30 different countries choose to live in this isolated community, where polar bears outnumber humans. “This Cold Life” tells the stories of a fascinating cross section of these hardy individuals.