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.
Director: Sandy Patch
Producers: Jeremy Yaches, Rodrigo Donoso
videoMedicine
Drinking wine from toxic cups was the 17th century’s own dubious ‘detox’ treatment
11 minutes
videoEngineering
How water-based clocks revolutionised the way we measure time
10 minutes
videoDemography and migration
In California’s farmlands, immigrant workers share their stories of toil and hope
17 minutes
videoHome
Life moves slowly in a Romanian mountain village, shaped by care and the seasons
13 minutes
videoEnvironmental history
In Kazakhstan, ‘atomic lakes’ still scar the landscape decades after Soviet nuclear tests
13 minutes
videoNature and landscape
‘A culture is no better than its woods’ – what our trees reveal about us, by W H Auden
5 minutes
videoGender
A catchy tune explains the world’s ‘isms’ – according to your mum doing the laundry
5 minutes
videoArchitecture
A 3D rendering of the Colosseum captures its architectural genius and symbolic power
17 minutes
videoMaking
On the Norwegian coast, a tree is transformed into a boat the old-fashioned way
6 minutes