Time and Water Trailer Unveiled by National Geographic

National Geographic Documentary Films has revealed the official trailer for the critically acclaimed film Time and Water. The documentary, from Academy Award-nominated director Sara Dosa (Fire of Love), opens in theaters globally starting May 29 and will debut later this year on National Geographic and Disney+.

In Time and Water, renowned Icelandic poet and author Andri Snær Magnason is chasing something elusive. As the glacial ice of his homeland melts, he constructs a time capsule to hold onto this moment and send it to the future, before everything he loves slips away.

Using his own collected archives, his grandparents’ photographs and films, as well as traditional songs and folktales, Andri interlaces his family’s story with that of the land around him. The film is a universal reflection on the power of home and what it means to be alive amid profound epochal change.

Time and Water world premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival to rave reviews. Most recently, the film screened at the Margaret Mead Festival, San Francisco International Film Festival, Full Frame, CPH:DOX, and Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival. Upcoming festival screenings include Hot Docs, Millennium Docs Against Gravity, and Sheffield DocFest.

“Time and Water is a deeply moving and timely cri de coeur that invites audiences to reflect on the ties that bind us to the natural world and to each other,” said Carolyn Bernstein, EVP of National Geographic Documentary Films. “As with ‘Fire of Love,’ Sara and her team’s unique creative vision and spirit of collaboration bring emotional depth, dramatic urgency and spectacular cinematography to a story that speaks to generations past, present and future.”

“Time and Water weaves a story of family and our natural landscapes as an effort to make sense of our profoundly changing world,” said Dosa. “We were inspired by how memory is carried across time, through family archives and cultural myths, in the land and the ice itself. Our film reveals how human life is inseparable from nature, bringing the distant future into intimate focus and inviting audiences to imagine, act, and feel a love for a world beyond their own lifetimes.”

“When speaking about the climate crisis, a scientist once said to me: ‘People don’t understand data, they understand stories,'” said Magnason. “Sara is a masterful, poetic storyteller, who has brought my family’s stories and experiences into a larger conversation about time, memory and our relationship to the environment. The film is a love letter to glaciers and generations, an invitation to us all to consider how we listen to the world as it changes around us.”

Sara Dosa is an Oscar-nominated nonfiction filmmaker whose work centers on the human relationship with more-than-human nature. The films she has directed — Fire of Love (2022), The Seer & The Unseen (2019), and The Last Season (2015) — have won numerous awards, including a Peabody and the Directors’ Guild of America Award, and were nominated for over 40 awards, including an Academy Award, BAFTA, Emmy, and an Independent Spirit Award.

Andri Snær Magnason is an Icelandic writer and documentary film director. He has written poetry, fiction, plays, nonfiction, and science fiction. His book On Time and Water has been translated into more than 30 languages. Magnason has received international awards like the Philip K. Dick Honorary Mention for LoveStar, the Prima Tiziano Terzani in Italy for On Time and Water, and the Green Earth Book Award for his YA book The Casket of Time.

Time and Water is presented by National Geographic Documentary Films and Sandbox Films in association with Ninmah Foundation. The film is a Signpost Pictures Production in association with Compass Films. The film is directed, written, and produced by Sara Dosa. Shane Boris, Elijah Stevens, and Jameka Autry serve as producers.

The film is written and edited by Erin Casper and Jocelyne Chaput, with Mark Harrison also serving as editor. Andri Snær Magnason contributes as a writer and co-producer. The film is scored by Dan Deacon. Heather Millard serves as co-producer.

The executive producers include Carolyn Bernstein and Tim Horsburgh with National Geographic Documentary Films, Jessica Harrop and Caitlin Mae Burke with Sandbox Films, Kristín Ólafsdóttir, Nina Fialkow, Moudhy Al-Rashid, and Sam Frohman. The film will play in theaters globally beginning May 29. It will air on National Geographic and stream on Disney+ later this year.