Antarctic Song

A Great Audio-Visual

Monday, May 11, 2026

Werner Herzog’s documentaries have something I find mesmerizing—something intangible. The following snippet from his 2007 film Encounters at the End of the World illustrates what I mean. In it, we get a bit of Herzog’s voice introduction (Is it the voice and accent?) before we get a look at what divers see beneath the Antarctic ice: a frozen “cathedral” with ethereal colors and strange alien-like life (Is it the imagery?), complemented by the Bulgarian folk choir (Is it the music choice?).

One commenter on YouTube said of the film overall: “What a film; gorgeous scenery, bukaneering and esoteric protagonists, Bulgarian choir music and Alan Watts quotes from a forklift driver. Herzog is a gem among filmmakers.”

The thing about Herzog’s documentaries, about him as a story-teller generally: He doesn’t go to a place and look for the senior officials, the most credentialed people on site, the ones who can explain from a top-down perspective what everything is meant to be about, about its significance and importance. He goes to a location and talks to the machine operators, the maids, the taxi drivers. He asks them questions about themselves and how they got to where they are at this place. And then he asks them a couple questions about what they’re doing has to do with the Universe more generally.

It’s a unique style and perspective, and at times I can’t quite decide whether it’s banal or profound—maybe both! But it’s a different approach than a lot of documentaries that feel more like news reporting, containing interviews with officials and senior managers on some project. He lets his subjects tell about themselves a bit more than a few lines focused on the topic at hand, editing the conversations in a way that preserves longer clips. It shows a fascination with the individuals and their unique points of view.

You can, it appears, watch the whole documentary on YouTube at this link.