dublin |
arts and media |
event notice
Monday September 11, 2006 11:58
by kaz - Irish Film Institute
"South " will be introduced by the explorer's cousin, Jonathan Shackleton
Irish Film Archive presents:
South,
18th October ,6.30pm , Irish Film Institute
Interest in Ernest Shackleton has been renewed recently, thanks in part a successful exhibition last year at the National Museum Collins Barracks. "South" is the film record of Sir Ernest Shackleton's ill-fated but ultimately heroic attempt to cross Antarctica in 1914-16.
Although the race to the Pole was won by Amundsen's Norwegian team in 1911, Shackleton planned to be the first man to cross Antarctica via the Pole. The experienced Australian cameraman Frank Hurley was to record the expedition . Hurley was a superb and courageous photographer, whose film chronicles what happened to Shackleton and his team of 27 men when their ship ‘Endurance’ was crushed by heavy ice, leaving them stranded for almost two years, exposing the team to conditions that made survival look impossible. Shackleton initially gave the order to abandon as much gear as possible, including all of Hurley's films and bulky photographic glass plates. Hurley faced the heartbreaking task of smashing around 400 of those plates to lighten his load, but took the remaining 150 together with his precious rolls of cine film
It took four rescue attempts before Shackleton was able to defeat the pack ice and to rescue his men. In 1919 Shackleton published his written account of the expedition, South, and lectured with Hurley's film and slides as accompaniment. He returned south on his fourth expedition in 1921, but died of a heart attack on South Georgia, where he was buried. He was just 47, and with his passing the heroic age of polar exploration came to an end.
This restored version of the film constructed by BFI with tinting and toning to match the original prints, has produced this handsome and richly coloured testament to a remarkable episode in the history of exploration.