Filmmaker In Residence 2022
The Woods Hole Film Festival is proud to present the 2022 Filmmaker in Residence Tasha Van Zandt and Special Guest Will Steger with the film AFTER ANTARCTICA
Tasha Van Zandt
Tasha Van Zandt is an award-winning director, cinematographer, and Emmy-nominated producer who has documented stories across all seven continents. Her debut documentary feature-length film After Antarctica follows the life of the legendary polar explorer Will Steger and his lifelong journey as an eyewitness to the greatest changes to the polar regions of our planet. Her documentary film One Thousand Stories follows the renowned artist JR in the creation of one of his most ambitious mural projects to date, which joined together over one thousand people from all walks of life into a single work of art. With the artist JR, she also collaborated on the documentary short film Tehachapi, which highlights the artist’s participatory mural project within the walls of a level four supermax federal prison. For her work on JR and TIME Magazine’s Emmy-nominated Guns In America project, Tasha traveled across the country documenting varied perspectives on gun control in the United States. Her work as a cinematographer includes Paper & Glue (Tribeca 2021), Jagged (Toronto 2021), and Crusaders (VICE 2021) and her work has been featured by TIME Magazine, The Guardian, The New York Times, National Geographic Expeditions, PBS, and VICE, and has been exhibited in museums around the world. Tasha Van Zandt is a 2019 Film Independent Documentary Lab Fellow, a 2019 Sundance Institute Music and Sound Design Lab Fellow, a 2019 SFFILM Sloan Stories Of Science Fellow, a 2020 Film Independent Fast Track Fellow, a 2020 Library Of Congress Lavine Ken Burns Prize For Film finalist, a 2020 SFFILM FilmHouse Resident, a 2021 Mountainfilm Commitment Grant Recipient and a 2021 Sundance Institute Sandbox Fund Grantee.
Will Steger
A formidable voice calling for understanding and the preservation of the Arctic, Will Steger is best known for his legendary 
polar explorations. Throughout over fifty years of exploration, he is the leading eyewitness to the dramatic transformation of the world’s most hostile landscapes. In 1995, Steger joined the ranks of Amelia Earhart, Robert Peary, and Jacques-Yves Cousteau in receiving the National Geographic Society’s John Oliver La Gorce Medal. Shortly thereafter, Steger became the National Geographic Society’s first Explorer-in-Residence, and in 2007 he received the prestigious National Geographic Adventure Lifetime Achievement Award. Today, Steger continues to venture on groundbreaking expeditions, and lives in Ely, Minnesota where he runs the Steger Center. Steger also founded Climate Generation, a nonprofit that empowers individuals to engage in climate change solutions. He is the author of four books: Over the Top of the World, Crossing Antarctica, North to the Pole, and Saving the Earth
AFTER ANTARCTICA, a feature documentary by Tasha Van Zandt feature documentary, USA, 2021 105 minutes
In a dramatic attempt to bring awareness to the changing continent, an international expedition led by renowned explorer Will Steger embarked on the first-ever coast-to-coast expedition across Antarctica in 1989. Six explorers and their sled dogs braved howling storms, sub-zero temperatures, snow crevasses, and other perils as they traversed the icy terrain. Now, thirty years since his groundbreaking expedition, Steger heads out on the ice once again—this time to the opposite end of the planet. Deftly weaving his contemporary journey with rare, dynamic footage of his original treacherous seven-month odyssey, After Antarctica is an urgent message spanning both poles. Screening at the 31st Woods Hole Film Festival.
