Requiem In White - Our Dying Glaciers

Austria, 2025, 53' 
Directed by: Harry Putz
Screenplay: Harry Putz
Camera: Martin Stoni, Harry Putz 

Production: Freiluftdoku 

The film is followed by a discussion with geographer and glaciologist Miha Pavšek (ZRC SAZU).

The glaciers in the Eastern Alps are dying – irreversibly, scientists agree. Experts are warning of the changing conditions, and adjustments need to be made in many areas. But while the ‘eternal ice’ is disappearing and the permafrost is dissolving, tourism is booming. In summer, visitors crowd into glacier cable cars to get as close as possible to the glacier. In winter, skiing operations are running at full speed. Interventions in nature are taking on ever more drastic forms: slope stabilisation, snow farming, artificial snow systems, massive terrain levelling – a race against time.

With Requiem in White, Harry Putz stages a haunting cinematic homage to the dying of the glaciers in the Alps. Through in-depth interviews, he weaves science and emotion into an oppressive documentary. Shot at 14 glaciers in Austria, Germany, Italy and Switzerland, the film ends by posing the unavoidable question: How do we want to say goodbye to our glaciers?

Harry Putz has been working as a freelance filmmaker since 2001. Under the name FREILUFTDOKU, he has regularly realised productions in mountain and documentary film in addition to commissioned work in the form of reports and advertising films. Since 2015, he has increasingly devoted himself as a filmmaker to nature films in connection with environmental protection. In 2023, his work culminated in the multi-award-winning documentary Bis Zum Letzten Tropfen about the expansion of hydropower in his native Tyrol/Austria. 

In cooperation with CIPRA Slovenia, the association for the protection of the Alps, and the Erasmus+ project Young Glacier Voices.