Time and Water documentary brings Sara Dosa’s glacier elegy to Disney+

Sara Dosa’s Time and Water documentary is moving from the festival circuit to living rooms this week, with a Friday premiere on National Geographic Channel and a Saturday streaming debut on Disney+, Deadline reported.

The film turns to Iceland, where climate change has reduced glaciers and forced the country to mark the disappearance of smaller ice masses. Deadline reported that the documentary is built around the writing and family history of Icelandic author Andri Snær Magnason, whose work is tied to the country’s changing frozen terrain.

What is Time and Water about?

Time and Water examines what Iceland loses as its glaciers retreat: land, memory, myth and a national identity shaped by ice. The film uses Magnason’s writing and personal history to connect environmental change with culture and storytelling.

One key piece of that story is Okjökull, also known as Ok glacier. According to Deadline, Iceland marked its loss in 2014, and Magnason was asked to write a memorial text that was etched into copper and fixed to rock exposed by the glacier’s retreat.

Dosa discussed the film on Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast. Deadline said she spoke about how she connected with Magnason, a major literary figure in Iceland who was asked to run for president in 2016.

She also discussed how seeing a sky turned orange by wildfires helped shape her interest in a planet under strain, according to Deadline. That image sits neatly beside the film’s central concern: how climate change rewrites places people thought they knew.

Dosa arrives at Time and Water with awards heat already attached to her name. Her previous documentary, Fire of Love, earned an Oscar nomination, and Deadline has described Time and Water as an expected Oscar contender this year.

Where has Time and Water screened?

Before its National Geographic and Disney+ rollout, the film played at festivals across several countries, Deadline reported. Its stops included Sundance, SXSW, Thessaloniki in Greece, CPH:DOX in Copenhagen, Doxa in Vancouver, Hot Docs in Toronto, festivals in Sydney and Perth in Australia, and the Mediterrane Film Festival in Malta.

The film’s sound world also leans into Icelandic tradition. Deadline reported that its score incorporates rímur, epic rhyming poems passed down through generations in Iceland.

Time and Water comes from National Geographic Documentary Films. Alongside Dosa, the producers are Oscar winner Shane Boris, whose credits include Navalny and Fire of Love, as well as Elijah Stevens and Jameka Autry, Deadline reported.

The Doc Talk episode featuring Dosa is hosted by Oscar winner John Ridley and Deadline senior documentary editor Matt Carey. Deadline said the podcast is produced by Deadline and Ridley’s Nō Studios and is available on major podcast platforms including Spotify, iHeart and Apple.

This story draws on original reporting from Deadline.