Were there any new friends or storylines that didn make the final cut?
There were a couple of very, very fine stories left, but the film would have become too long. That’s the worst you can do to an audience: “Is it going to be over soon?” They start shifting around in their seat and looking at their wristwatch. So the film is 99 minutes long, and I think it’s a good time. You should leave the theater with a feeling you would like to see more. Of course, there’s more very, very good footage. Those things that had to be seen are in the film, and as a filmmaker, you have to exercise a certain discipline. I don’t like films that are four-and-a-half hours long, or eight hours long. It just makes me nervous. I think there’s a natural length to a film, and “Encounters at the End of the World” was about 100 minutes the right and natural length of it, period. I have no regrets that I had to leave out a couple of fine things. So what? You’ve filmed in some of the world’s most remote locations, and with Antarctica, you’re the first person to shoot on every single c
