Filmmaker Q&A with ‘Canary’ Co-directors

Witness the extraordinary life of Dr. Lonnie Thompson, an explorer who went where no scientist had gone before and transformed our idea of what is possible. Daring to seek Earth’s history contained in glaciers atop the tallest mountains in the world, Lonnie found himself on the frontlines of climate change—his life’s work evolving into a salvage mission to recover these priceless historical records before they disappear forever.

What inspired this story?

[Co-director Alex Rivest]: Danny and I were working on developing a TV series called Frontiers, which was to be the “Chef’s Table” of science. We had received a development grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and had searched the planet for the most compelling stories in the world of science. Our goal was to change the way science storytelling worked, by focusing on the human stories of science. We made a list of 600+ scientists and worked our way through it. It was during that search that we met Lonnie. On a Skype call, Lonnie had us hooked into a high-altitude adventure in the first minute, had both Danny and I crying by 40 minutes, and by the end of the call, I turned to Danny and said, “If there is one story we tell in this world, it needs to be this one.” We put the TV series on hold and focused on telling Lonnie’s story.

Why was Lonnie’s story so compelling? There were so many cross-sections with Lonnie’s life and climate change. Lonnie was born in coal-mining country, West Virginia, destined to work in the coal mines, yet he became the world's foremost expert telling us that we must get off of fossil fuels. When climate scientists were drilling in Antarctica and Greenland, Lonnie dared to ask what we could find from the high mountain glaciers in the tropics. He spent so much time trying to figure out how to drill ice cores from the Quelccaya glacier that he saw the glacier melting at an alarming rate at 18,000 feet and started ringing the warning bells about what he was seeing. He was one of the first to show us the scale of global warming photography and data. When no one was listening to his warning, Lonnie was struck with his own warning, his heart was failing. Instead of going facing the facts, he went into denial, showing us how susceptible we all are to denial. In telling Lonnie’s amazing story, you could cover so much perspective on climate change while telling a personal adventure story.

Hearing Lonnie’s story gave us hope and we knew we had to tell it.

Describe some of the challenges faced while making this film/program.

[Co-director Alex Rivest]: Getting a Chef’s Table sized crew working and camping at 18,000 feet for three weeks and film active science above 18,000 feet took a kind of preparation that none of us had experienced before. Our team took oxygen deprivation training three weeks before leaving to shoot with Lonnie and his team at the Quelccaya glacier in Peru. Members of our team (Danny, Alex, and Adam) spent three weeks sleeping in an oxygen deprivation tent at a simulated 17,000 feet while working during the day at a simulated oxygen level of 22,000 feet. Our cinematographer, Devin Whetstone, and AC, Cate Smierciak, would do daily workouts in a gym while simulating high altitude. When we finally got to the mountain, none of us suffered altitude sickness, and we were able to shoot precisely how we wanted to.

What did you learn from your experience making this film/program?

[Co-director Danny O’Malley]: Ultimately, we learned the secret to success is how much failure you can endure. Over the course of making this film, there were hundreds of gut-punch moments where it felt like the movie was done and the adventure was over. Whether it was getting caught in a lightning storm on top of Quelccaya and heading down without having filmed at all, running out of budget, or the many dead ends we hit in post-production. There were a million steps between the idea and sharing the film with audiences and hearing how the film moved them. At the end of this process, we’ve gotten quite comfortable with failure as a stepping stone to success.

What impact do you hope this film will have?

[Co-director Alex Rivest]: Tackling climate change is as difficult for individuals as it is for countries. Many of us who see climate change as an existential threat to human civilization still live in our own forms of denial. It is essential that we all take time to understand our own denials. One of the things I like about Lonnie Thompson’s story is that he is one of the foremost experts telling the world to listen to the facts on climate change and is perplexed by the denial of the facts he presents. Yet, when Lonnie is told the facts about his health, that he needs a heart transplant and needs to stop climbing 20,000 ft mountains, he goes into his own form of denial and keeps on climbing. This shows how susceptible we all are to denial and how dangerous that can be. We hope this film holds a mirror up to audience members to think about their own forms of denial and gives them the strength to confront that denial and fight for a better future.

Were there any surprising or meaningful moments you want to share?

[Co-director Danny O’Malley]: When we premiered the film in Ohio, the family of the heart donor who saved Lonnie’s life with a transplant came to the screening. There was a moment where the donor’s grandmother asked to put her head up on Lonnie’s chest to hear her grandchild’s heart beat, and it was so beautiful. When we made the film, Lonnie had no contact with the donor’s family, so seeing this moment happen really blew us away.