South: Ernest Shackleton and the Endurance Expedition

The Endurance sailed from Buenos Aires in October, 1914, under the leadership of seasoned British explorer Ernest Shackleton. The plan was to land on the Weddell Sea coast and then cross Antarctica via the Pole to the Ross Sea, where a relief party would meet them. But within a day’s travel of land, the Endurance was trapped in unusually heavy pack ice. 

Completely stuck, Shackleton and his crew drifted helplessly northward for the next nine months (during the long Antarctic winter when it is perpetually night) while listening to the shrieks and moans of the Endurance slowly being crushed by the mounting pressure of the ice. 

The film gathers images of wrenching beauty (the Endurance finally collapsed while Shackleton’s crew watched from an island nearby). Miraculously, all 28 men lived through the two-year ordeal, and a smaller miracle is that the film did too.   

The National Film Archive in London did an immaculate restoration job of the 35mm film with the original tints and a brief 2-tone sequence restored to their full glory over a decade ago, but with the recent discovery of the wreck of the Endurance vessel on the Antarctic sea floor, we’re pleased to present a new digital restoration of the classic 1919 silent documentary that features a new orchestral score by Neil Brand.

more info at this website: https://www.kinolorber.com/film/south-ernest-shackleton-and-the-endurance-expedition