JEAN LEMIRE
Age
43
Profession
Renegade Biologist turned filmmaker
Education
Biology, specialization in ecology
Relevant Experience
As a biologist, more than 15 years’ experience researching marine mammals.
As a filmmaker, has directed or produced almost fifty hours for the movies or television (recipient of numerous prestigious awards on both the national and international stage).
As mission leader, he led the Arctic Mission expedition in 2002 (a successful North-West passage) and Mission Baleines in 2003 (Iceland, Greenland, Gulf of Maine and Gulf of St. Lawrence), aboard Sedna IV.
Job During Mission Antarctica
Mission Leader
Personal Goals and Motivations
To shed light on the fragility of the last unspoiled continent on the planet. To reach spectators through the human adventure and share the discovery. To make people around the world aware of the fragility of ecosystems. To explain, in straightforward terms, how Antarctica influences the global climatic mechanism and get people to understand that, faced with the current threat of climate change, every little action makes a difference. To give young people a taste for dreaming and to instil in them a desire to roll up their sleeves, take control of the future and change the world by renewing the values of respect and sustainable development. But most of all, through our adventures, to succeed in stirring souls to begin a process of reflection, which inevitably lead to action.
What I Hope to Accomplish During the Expedition
Mission Antarctica provides the perfect setting in which to express my three great passions: film, writing and photography. The extreme isolation and exceptional length of the expedition should allow for a remarkable inner voyage. I hope to be able to rediscover that amazing feeling of harmony with nature which I felt at the end of our last mission to the Arctic. Also, I will take advantage of this time—a rare commodity in my life—to continue working on a book of photos and start editing a book on the human saga behind the expedition.
Greatest Fears During the Expedition
The threat will come from within. Of course, there will be ice fields, storms, cold and blizzards, which can claim your life without warning. Heaven forbid! I would never get a chance to become a father…
Living without privacy for nine long months of winter, the isolation, prolonged darkness, and the stress on the crew, who will suddenly feel trapped, with no possibility of rescue, could pose a danger to this micro-society that I have brought together. I’m haunted by the fear that I’ve deceived myself, failed to detect the rotten apple in the big basket of my life, and this fear dogs me and always makes me doubt myself. I’m afraid of cliques that could destroy the larger family and turn this dream into a nightmare. Last of all, I am afraid this expedition might end up becoming nothing but another one-way street in my Life, which I won’t want to leave behind when we return, and which could draw me away from my path into the future. When escape goes by the name of Desire, and beckons you to excess, then nothing but dreams may linger to satisfy a sometimes-desperate longing. But in this case, only time can provide a way of looking back on who one really was.
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Wintering
