Filmmaker and author Holly Morris (Exposure, The Babushkas of Chernobyl, Globe Trekker, Adventure Divas) has spent her career telling the stories of women who chase their potential in the crucible of the natural world. So when she learned that polar explorer Felicity Aston was recruiting for the “Women's Euro-Arabian North Pole Expedition,” she knew she had to make a film about it.

Morris and her all-woman film crew undertook an ambitious polar production: no snowmobiles, no dogs….no craft services. Nowhere to hide from the -40 temperatures or polar bears, and no way to avoid the open leads of water in the semi-frozen Arctic Ocean over which they laboriously pulled sledges, leaden with hundreds of pounds of camera equipment.

Narrated by director Morris, this behind-the-scenes short film (companion to the feature film Exposure, release 2021) captures the gravitas and debacle of an epic filmmaking undertaking, as well as the indomitable spirit of the expedition team itself—novice explorers from who trained for 2 years to become the last over-ice expedition to reach the fast-melting North Pole.

Overexposed: Filming An Arctic Odyssey was produced as part of Docs by the Dozen, in partnership with LUNAFEST®.