Kathy Kasic is a filmmaker, cinematographer, and Associate Professor at California State University Sacramento. With a background in evolutionary biology, she shifted from research in the Ecuadorian Amazon to documentary filmmaking, bringing a sensory and place-based approach to stories about science and the natural world. Her work has taken her from mountain rivers to polar ice fields, resulting in over 100 productions featured on BBC, Discovery, PBS, and in museums and festivals worldwide. She field directed for BBC Earth Shot: Repairing Our Planet and directed The Lake at the Bottom of the World, now streaming on Amazon and Curiosity Stream. Her latest film, The Memory of Darkness, Light, and Ice, has earned international acclaim, including “Best Environmental Filmmaking” at the Wild and Scenic Film Festival and screenings at AAAS and the U.S. Capitol. Kasic is also a recipient of three NSF grants and a dedicated mentor. Through her films, she seeks to deepen our connection to the natural world and give voice to what often goes unseen.
The Memory of Darkness, Light and Ice: A Film Screening and Moderated Discussion with Kathy Kasic
Join us for a special Climate Week screening of The Memory of Darkness, Light, and Ice, an hour-long documentary by filmmaker Kathy Kasic. The film follows the discovery of long-lost Arctic sediment from a secret Cold War base beneath the Greenland Ice Sheet - evidence that offers a window into a time when the ice sheet was gone. Through stunning visuals and intimate storytelling, the documentary explores what this finding means for the future of global sea levels and our rapidly changing climate.
Following the screening, a moderated discussion with Director and Producer of the film, Kathy Kasic, will offer insight into the making of the film and the urgent environmental themes it raises. All are welcome. Please join us!
Speakers
Kathy Kasic
Leigh Stearns
Leigh Sterns, PhD, is interested in how a changing climate impacts the cryosphere, and the risks associated with those changes. Her current research focuses on ice sheet dynamics and sea level rise, shifts in iceberg and sea ice distributions in Arctic shipping lanes, and glacier loss and water availability at low latitudes. She relies on a combination of satellite remote sensing, machine learning, and geophysical instrumentation to better understand these systems and parameterize their changes into numerical models.
Joerg M. Schaefer
Joerg Schaefer is a Climate Geochemist, Lamont Research Professor, founding Director of Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory’s Cosmogenic Nuclide Group, faculty member of the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences (DEES), and the Director of Undergraduate Studies for DEES as well as the Columbia Climate School. His key interests include how glaciers and ice-sheets respond to past and modern warming, how changing ice impact environment and society and how science can assist in developing solution strategies for these climate-related challenges. Schaefer’s focus is to understand, and better predict, the accelerating changes of polar ice-sheets and mountain glaciers in past, present and future. Schaefer loves to teach science, and has lead the development of the first ‘Climate Science Majors’ at Columbia. Schaefer is actively engaged in Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion efforts in US Geosciences, as well as in anti-harassment and anti-bullying campaigns within the US science community.
Moderator
Jon Hawkings
Jon Hawkings is a biogeochemist with broad expertise in the cycling of elements through the Earth system. His research centers on the role of glacial meltwater in downstream biogeochemical cycles, with a focus on how meltwater influences ecosystem structure and productivity, subglacial biogeochemical weathering, and the mobilization of nutrients and toxic elements in freshwater environments and their export to coastal ecosystems.
Jon’s research portfolio includes the study of supraglacial environments (cryoconite), ice sheet hydrology, and groundwater aquifers. He conducts extensive fieldwork in remote regions of the Arctic, Patagonia, the Himalayas, and the tropics, with past expeditions to Svalbard, Greenland, India, Chile, and Antarctica. He is also a collaborator on the Subglacial Antarctic Lakes Scientific Access (SALSA) project and has taught field skills on multiple trips to the European Alps.