DURHAM, NC – “Chasing Ice,” a documentary that captures a photographer’s efforts to document the melting of Arctic glaciers via time-lapse images, has won the 2012 Nicholas School of the Environment Film Award.

The award, which was presented April 15, recognizes the best environmentally themed film at 91’s Center for Documentary Studies’ annual Full Frame Documentary Film Festival. It carries a $5,000 cash prize.

In “Chasing Ice,” filmmaker Jeff Orlowski follows photojournalist James Balog as Balog chronicles the impact of climate change on the Arctic landscape through dramatic time-lapse images.  “James wanted to figure out a way to visualize climate change,” Orlowski explained. “To get beyond the charts and numbers.  And I think he succeeded at that.”

The annual Nicholas School of the Environment Film Award was established last year as part of the Duke Arts and the Environment Initiative.  It honors the Full Frame film that best depicts “the challenges we face in reconciling the human drive to improve living standards and the imperative to preserve the natural environments that sustain us and the cultural heritages that define us,” says Dean William L. Chameides.

Last year’s winner was “Pit No. 8,” a portrait of parents and teenagers trying to earn a living in the abandoned coal pits of the Ukraine.

Representatives of the Nicholas School who juried this year’s award were Cindy Horn, Stephen Nemeth, Rebecca Patton and Tom Rankin.

The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival is an international event dedicated to the theatrical exhibition of nonfiction cinema. The festival is held annually in Durham.

Earlier this year, “Chasing Ice” won the Excellence in Cinematography Award for Best U.S. Documentary at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. To learn more about the film, go to.