South

Already a celebrated polar explorer, Ernest Shackleton set sail with his crew in 1914 with the goal to be the first to cross Antarctica by land. Disaster struck when their ship, the Endurance, became trapped in pack ice and eventually sank, stranding the crew in one of the most extreme climates on the planet.

Shackleton’s team included Frank Hurley, the Australian photographer who documented the historic expedition. He left us with a startling array of images and footage—from the glorious beginning of the adventure to the crew’s desperate survival and the heroic rescue led by Shackleton, who sailed to a whaling station hundreds of miles away in a small boat and returned for his men in a steam tug. The resulting film was used to illustrate Shackleton’s lectures about the expedition and was also released as a theatrical feature. Remastered in 4K by the British Film Institute and featuring a newly commissioned score by Neil Brand. (81 mins., DCP)

The screening is introduced by Laura Kissel, curator at Ohio State’s Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center. Visit our Lower Lobby before the event to retrace Shackleton’s expedition route through a timeline of rock samples courtesy of the Polar Rock Repository. Each sample comes from Antarctica or the Weddell Sea floor and represents both where the crew traveled and where the Endurance drifted while lodged in ice.

IMAGE CAPTION
South, courtesy of Milestone Films.