A man struggles to carry on a dying trade – harvesting ice from a glacier

For over 50 years Baltazar Ushca has harvested the glacial ice of Ecuador’s Mount Chimborazo. His brothers, both raised as ice merchants, have long since retired from the mountain. They have chosen new vocations, as ice cream vendors and construction workers, but Baltazar forges on, making his weekly journey to the ‘ice mines’ that sit high on the mountain. Vividly shot, The Last Ice Merchant takes a commonplace story of technological change and gives it the simplicity and power of a fable.