72 minutes color video
English subtitles
As in a continuous cyclical 24-hour process, the ice men are followed from a small ice factory near Jogjakarta on Java Indonesia. Quietly and persistently they move large bars of ice using hooks and pins. They load the ice into trucks, on mopeds and carts and take it to the harbor, market and food stalls.
The ice men seem to be one with their work. In a continuous process of filling, dragging, stacking, driving and chopping they fill large iron containers with water with calm persistence. When this has become ice, the men slide the ice bars over tiled floors and through holes in walls. Under the glow of street lamps they unload the 60 kilo bars at distribution points with apparent ease. The tropical heat determines the day and night rhythm of the ice and the men. In the early morning the ice will be sawn into blocks and transported further with mopeds and carts. Before the sun gets too hot, the ice will reach the user. So again and again.
camera: Tino Djumini
soundmix: Jac Vleeshouwers
director, editor: Carina Ellemers
additional editing: Caitlin Hulscher, Stella van Voorst van Beest
translation: Tino Djumini, Siti Khodija, Judie Ellington
Part of Project ICE