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Meridian Field · Feature Documentary · 2026

The Long
Blue Hour

Nine months above the treeline with the last four people who still measure the glacier by hand. Shot at 4,100 metres, in the ninety minutes each day when the light refuses to decide.

Runtime
108 min
Format
65 mm
Premiere
Mar 14

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01 — The Film

“We arrived expecting silence. What we found was a mountain that talks all night — it cracks, it drips, it settles. The recordist slept with headphones on for a hundred and eleven days.”

Ines Baranov · Director

A012_0447 · 4,118 m · −19 °C

02 — Structure

Six chapters,
one descending light

The film is cut to the season rather than to the plot. Each chapter opens at the same hour and ends when the colour goes.

  1. CH 01 Ninety Days of Ice The team hauls 340 kg of stakes to the upper basin before the first freeze closes the road. 18:24
  2. CH 02 The Stake Line Ninety-one aluminium markers, re-drilled by hand every fortnight. A measurement nobody has automated. 14:52
  3. CH 03 Radio Silence, Week Eleven A storm takes the repeater. Eleven days without contact, recorded on a single wind-up machine. 21:06
  4. CH 04 What the Meltwater Carries Sediment cores, dated pollen, and the argument that splits the crew in two. 16:39
  5. CH 05 Blue Hour, Repeating Forty-one identical setups across eight months, cut together as a single dissolving shot. 12:18
  6. CH 06 Leaving the Basin The last descent, and the reading that will be compared to 1962. 24:41

03 — Field Notes

Production, by the number

Everything below was logged on paper first. The spreadsheet came eleven months later.

111Days on site
4,118 mHighest camera
−31 °CColdest roll
62 hrsExposed negative

Three of the six chapters were shot entirely inside the ninety-minute window the crew called the long blue hour — the stretch after the sun leaves the basin but before the ridge line goes black. Below is the working schedule the unit ran for eight months without a single deviation.

WindowUnitDisciplineNotes
04:40SoundAmbient, no cameraGlacier settle, pre-wind
06:15A-camStake line, long lensTripod on rock only
11:00ScienceAblation readingsObserved, never staged
16:50A + B camBlue hour, 65 mmTwo rolls maximum
19:30InterviewTent, single sourceUnlit after week four
23:00SoundOvernight runMachine left unattended
Final reel · 01:47:12:03

04 — Credits

A small unit, a long season

  • Directed by
    Ines Baranov
  • Cinematography
    Tobias Renn, Amara Okonjo
  • Sound & Score
    Petra Lindqvist
  • Scientific Advisor
    Dr. Hallgrímur Steinn