The Snowman

Juliette Lamont starts her poignant search with a question: "Why did my father go mad?" The man who then shuffles into frame, Jimmy Graham, was once her loving father. But 30 years ago, there was a short circuit in his head. It happened on an expedition to Antarctica, where he was instructing scientists on how to keep on moving under polar conditions. He suffered an acute attack of suspected paranoid schizophrenia that he never recovered from. Ever since, he has been passing his days in a haze of alcohol, trashy books, and incoherent ramblings. Using archive footage, short animations, conversations with people in her father's circle, and attempted conversations with her father, Lamont travels back in time to the protest movement of 1960s London, to her parents' journey to the hippie scene in Australia, and to the fateful events at the South Pole. Was Jimmy Graham brainwashed by the CIA? Did LSD play a role? Or did an extramarital affair lead to an unwanted pregnancy and cause the circuits to blow? Lamont does not get a clear answer, but there is a glimmer of reconciliation when, during a dinner party, she confronts her mother and brother with Jimmy, former husband to one and father to the other.