"A bizarre and breathtaking high-seas adventure set in the remote, spectacular Ross Sea off Antarctica, At the Edge of the World is the season's most surprising and thought-provoking documentary." (Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com). In late November 2006, a documentary crew accompanied 46 international volunteers from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society as they embarked on their third Antarctic campaign to stop Japanese whaling. What emerged was At the Edge of the World, an intrepid record of modern-day piracy and the high-stakes battle between commerce and ecological survival.
Tracking the whaling fleet (which slips through a loophole in the conservation laws to kill and process close to a thousand whales each season) over the glorious vastness of the Ross Sea, the crews of the two Sea Shepherd vessels face crippling seasickness and deadly ice packs.
"This real-life drama and its vast setting demand to be experienced on the big, instead of the little screen—men go overboard, skiffs go missing, and the long arm of the law threatens in this lean, sharply directed film. From
Edge's opening wide shot of the Shepherds leaping off an iceberg into encircling rings of crystalline turquoise waters, the sea's vast expanse becomes a looming character in its own right—by turns stupendously beautiful and grimly terrifying, and best appreciated in a movie theater." - Elena Oumano,
Village Voice
"Is there a sign for 'man overboard'? wonders one anxious volunteer, clearly anticipating the risks of an enterprise committed to fouling Japanese propellers and perfecting a maneuver cheekily named "the can-opener." Directed by Dan Stone to highlight moral as well as legal conflicts, this strikingly humane film may function as a prequel to Animal Planet's
Whale Wars but is light years ahead in visual clarity and narrative ambition." - Jeannette Catsoulis, The New York Times
