Into the White: 100 Years of Polar Exploration on Screen
Into the White: 100 Years of Polar Exploration on Screen
Available from May
Archive's restoration of The Great White Silence (1924; see p14), and the centenary of Captain Scott's expedition to the South Pole, the Mediatheque presents Into the White, a new collection featuring over a century of polar exploration films.
Our earliest addition shows an American expedition to the North Pole, but it was the discoveries to be found at the South Pole that most fascinated explorers. Antarctica was the last great continent to be left unexplored by mankind - the effort to uncover the mysteries of this territory began in the 19th century but extremely hostile conditions meant that explorers could do little more than map the edges.
The early part of the 20th century saw the ‘heroic age' of popular imagination, during which the continent was explored, measured and mapped, and the South Pole was finally reached. The valiant efforts of men like Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton have continued to inspire filmmakers over the years, and many of the best movie and TV retellings appear in Into the White, alongside fascinating documentaries showing the subsequent work of scientists, naturalists and explorers in the polar regions.
Including:
A Dash to the North Pole (1909)
Dogs for the Antarctic (1914)
Lieutenant Pimple's Dash for the Pole (1914)
South - Sir Ernest Shackleton's Glorious Epic of the Antarctic (1919)
Aerial Antarctic Discoveries (1930)
90º South (1933)
Scott of the Antarctic (1948)
Foothold on Antarctica (1956)
Life in the Freezer (1993)
Shackleton (2002)
Mediatheques at London BFI Southbank,
Central Library, Cambridge,
QUAD, Derby,
Wrexham Library,
Discovery Museum, Newcastle
(I note this is the British Film Institute... At least it isn't just England.)