A New Documentary Poignantly Blends Ecology, Memory, and Generational Love
National Geographic Documentary Films has released the official trailer for Time and Water, the critically lauded documentary directed by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Sara Dosa (Fire of Love). The film will open in theaters worldwide starting May 29 and will later premiere on National Geographic and Disney+ later this year.
At its core, Time and Water follows renowned Icelandic poet and author Andri Snær Magnason as he pursues something intangible. As the glaciers of his homeland steadily disappear, he builds a time capsule meant to capture this fragile moment and send it to future generations—a last-ditch effort to preserve what he holds dear before it vanishes forever.
Weaving Family Stories with the Landscape’s Own Narrative
Using his personal archived materials, including his grandparents’ photographs and films alongside traditional Icelandic songs and folklore, Magnason intertwines his family’s history with the natural world around him. The result is a universal meditation on the meaning of home and what it means to exist during a period of profound, epochal transformation.
Time and Water made its world premiere at this year’s Sundance Film Festival to glowing reviews. It has since screened at prominent festivals such as the Margaret Mead Festival, San Francisco International Film Festival, Full Frame, CPH:DOX, and Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival. Upcoming screenings include Hot Docs, Millennium Docs Against Gravity, and Sheffield DocFest.
Voices Behind the Film: Urgency, Emotion, and Collaboration
Carolyn Bernstein, EVP of National Geographic Documentary Films, described the film as “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.” She added that, much like Fire of Love, Dosa’s unique creative vision and collaborative spirit bring emotional depth, dramatic urgency, and spectacular cinematography to a story that speaks to past, present, and future generations.
Dosa herself noted, “Time and Water weaves a story of family and our natural landscapes as an effort to make sense of our profoundly changing world.” She explained that the film draws inspiration from how memory travels across time—through family archives, cultural myths, and even the land and 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.”
Magnason, reflecting on the project, recalled a scientist’s remark: “People don’t understand data, they understand stories.” He praised Dosa as a masterful, poetic storyteller who transformed his family’s experiences into a larger conversation about time, memory, and humanity’s relationship with the environment. “The film is a love letter to glaciers and generations,” he said, “an invitation to all of us to consider how we listen to the world as it changes around us.”
The Creative Team: Acclaimed Talent Behind the Scenes
Sara Dosa is an Oscar-nominated nonfiction filmmaker whose work centers on the human relationship with more-than-human nature. Her previous films—Fire of Love (2022), The Seer & The Unseen (2019), and The Last Season (2015)—have won numerous accolades, including a Peabody Award and the Directors’ Guild of America Award, and earned more than 40 nominations, including an Academy Award, BAFTA, Emmy, and Independent Spirit Award.
Andri Snær Magnason is an Icelandic writer and documentary director whose body of work spans poetry, fiction, plays, nonfiction, and science fiction. His book On Time and Water has been translated into over 30 languages and earned him international honors such as the Philip K. Dick Honorary Mention for LoveStar, the Prima Tiziano Terzani in Italy, and the Green Earth Book Award for his YA book The Casket of Time.
Production Details and Global Release
Time and Water is presented by National Geographic Documentary Films and Sandbox Films in association with the Ninmah Foundation, and produced by Signpost Pictures in association with Compass Films. Dosa directed, wrote, and produced the film, with Shane Boris, Elijah Stevens, and Jameka Autry serving as producers. The film was written and edited by Erin Casper and Jocelyne Chaput, with Mark Harrison also contributing as editor. Magnason is both writer and co-producer. The score is by Dan Deacon, and Heather Millard serves as co-producer.
Executive producers include Carolyn Bernstein and Tim Horsburgh (National Geographic Documentary Films), Jessica Harrop and Caitlin Mae Burke (Sandbox Films), Kristín Ólafsdóttir, Nina Fialkow, Moudhy Al-Rashid, and Sam Frohman.
The film will play in theaters globally beginning May 29 and will air on National Geographic and stream on Disney+ later this year.
