The untold stories of the Polish female pioneers of polar research in the Arctic and Antarctic are presented in the documentary film “Ant/Arctic Women.” Premiered a year ago, it is now available online.
The film shows women who conducted research in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s at the Stanisław Siedlecki Polish Polar Station in Hornsund, Spitsbergen, and at the Henryk Arctowski Polish Antarctic Station on King George Island.
One of the characters in the film is Maria Agata Olech, the first female polar lichenologist in Poland and the first woman to lead a year-round expedition to the Henryk Arctowski Polish Antarctic Station (1991-92). In 2012, as the first Polish polar explorer in history, she crossed the Northwest Passage, participating in an international research expedition on the yacht Marguerite 1.
The film also shows other extraordinary heroines: biotechnologist Anna Kołakowska, chemist Wiesława Krawczyk, ecologist Anna Krzyszowska Waitkus and hydrologist Joanna Pociask-Karteczka. They fearlessly wintered in bases and worked in the most difficult conditions. The results of their work contribute to the study of changes in climate and the condition of the entire planet. It is a story about ambition, stubbornness in pursuing one’s goals, and making dreams come true.
The film “Ant/Arctic Women”, a documentary inspired by Dagmara Bożek’s reportage “Polar Women. Conquerors of the polar world’. The director of the film is Kuba Witek, author of documentaries about the countries of the North.
The documentary is part of a larger popular science project of the same name, dedicated to Polish Arctic and Antarctic explorers, both historically and today.
We invite everyone to watch the documentary film “Ant/Arctic Women” on YouTube with English subtitles:
The Polish Academy of Sciences, the Polish Embassy in Oslo and the Polar Research Committee have taken honorary patronage of the project.
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