Ice Bears of the Beaufort opens with two distinct roars. The first is a roar of words, with text moving across the screen calling for action against human interference in the Arctic, as “the present is upon us.” The other roar is more literal. It’s the sound of the wind ripping through the Alaskan air, coupled with cries from what can only be the polar bears of the title. These introduce the two major players in Arthur Smith’s III ’75 documentary: polar bears and the natural world they are a part of. Both of these, Smith argue, are in danger from offshore oil development that threatens the Arctic sanctuary.

Ice Bears offers a snapshot view into a year in the life of polar bears, from how they live to how they interact with each other. The film opens with footage from Jan. 8, 2005. This footage shows the intensity of the natural habitat where the polar bears live, showcasing a blinding snowstorm that blankets everything, from villages to nature to human beings. In spite of this, the polar bears are oblivious to the storm around them. Much like the impending danger of the oil developers, the storm does nothing to dampen the bears’ spirits, and the film shows them playing without a care in the world. The next set of footage, taken a little over two and a half years later, show the other extreme weather condition: summer. Here, the bears are juxtaposed next to oceans and crashing waves, swimming around carefree. These extremes set the scene for the rest of the movie, which highlights the lives of these polar bears.

The rest of the film focuses on the various ecological systems that the bears deal with, as they have to survive in both the constant sunlight of the Arctic summer and the endless darkness of the winter. Staring in January and moving through the rest of the 2007 calendar year, Ice Bears highlights the natural beauty of both seasons the Arctic faces. Smith masterly uses his camera to bring both the greens and the snow-covered whites of the mountains where the bears live to the screen. Beautiful shots of the sun setting behind a polar bear dazzles the screen with brilliant purples, red and yellows. Audiences will be astonished by the natural world that Smith brings to life, as not only bears populate the screen, but also elk and one adorable squirrel munching on an acorn.

The movie runs without a verbal narration, save for a weather announcement at the beginning broadcasting the intense cold that the Arctic faces. Instead, text is interspersed throughout the film to give the time and place of each shot, bringing context. The text also works to raise arguments about the bears’ behavior, and its importance.

All of this, the movie argues, reveals the bonds of a greater social order. After viewing movie, the most lasting message is one that is expressed through the text, which proclaims “a secret society is expressed among the Beaufort Sea polar bears.” Familial boundaries are redefined, with spring cubs playing with two year olds, who also tumble with adolescents. Adult sows and boars befriend one another, nuzzling and licking each other to express their intimacy. Unlike humans, who will only show intimacy with another person after extended amounts of time and a certain comfort level, these bears will immediately welcome any other one of their kind.

Although audiences may not immediately see the message of this film, just like the polar bears, it’s visible and powerful. Ice Bears depicts the lives and interactions of polar bears as unique to this world and meaningful for survival. If humans continue on with policies that ignore the sanctity of environments like the Beaufort Sea and instead exploit it for our personal gain, these majestic animals will not be around much longer. The Arctic, the film argues, “is a world never meant to exist without ice.” Follow this line with images of polar bears jumping around ice blocks trying to get a hold on anything solid in a sea filled with crashing waves. In an age where many environmentalists try to push opinions down our throats with graphs and data tables, it’s refreshing to see a documentary that relies on the natural beauty of the polar bears and their surroundings to portray a message of urgency.