ENDURANCE22: The Man Who Filmed the Expedition

Dan Snow's History Hit

History Hit

History

4.7 • 12.9K Ratings

🗓️ 10 February 2022

⏱️ 20 minutes

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Summary

The extraordinary story of Shackleton's doomed Trans-Antarctic expedition has captured audiences for over 100 years. It's not just because it's a dramatic tale of survival, but because there's visual evidence of it. Some of the greatest moments of history in the last century are etched into our minds because someone was there with a camera; for Shackleton's expedition, it was the tough and tenacious Australian photographer Frank Hurley. His photographs and footage became world-famous on the crew's return to England when they were turned into a remarkable feature-length film. 'South' told the story of the destruction of the Endurance and the survival of the men on the ice without a ship.

Even today, the expedition footage remains breathtaking; to see the frozen world the Endurance crew found and the daily habits and behaviours of the men whose names are so well known in history books is nothing short of remarkable. The film has been remastered by the BFI and now for the centenary of Shackleton's death, 'South' is available to watch on BFI Player and is currently in cinemas. It will be released on DVD and Blu Ray at the end of February.

In this episode, Dan speaks to BFI curator Bryony Dixon about how Frank Hurley managed to get the astonishing footage seen in 'South' and why it endures.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, everyone. Welcome to Dan Snow's History. I think one of the reasons that we are still
0:04.6	so engaged and caught up with the Shackleton stories, not just its inherent majesty, not
0:09.6	just the fact that it is the one of the greatest survival and escape rescue stories, but
0:13.6	it's the fact there is surviving photographic evidence for it. We all know the power that
0:18.6	documenting something has. Many times in this podcast we've talked about human history
0:22.5	turn because film footage, audio archive, still images reach the rest of the world after
0:28.6	some event and provoke some gigantic movements back lash, willing of support. And I think
0:34.4	that's true of Shackleton's expedition as well. He took Frank Hurley, a very tough, tenacious,
0:40.6	resilient Australian who actually proved himself to be not only a superb filmmaker but a vital
0:45.8	member of the expedition. Shackleton complements him several times in his diary. He says that
0:49.6	he was particularly useful whether it was hauling or coming up with innovations. He helped
0:53.8	design a small build pump for one of the boats in which Shackleton escaped. So Frank Hurley
0:58.6	was an essential member of the expedition but he was there basically to film it, to record
1:03.2	it. Now I feel that I've got a little bit of affinity there because I'm currently
1:06.7	on the expedition to find Shackleton's shipwreck, the Faulkland's Maritime Heritage Trust,
1:10.8	a luxury expedition to find Shackleton's shipwreck, the interest. And my job is a little
1:14.8	bit like Hurley's to just record it, to make as much noise as possible, to collect images,
1:19.7	to create video in this case and broadcast them all over the world. That's what Shackleton
1:24.3	wanted. Shackleton wanted to grab the attention of the world and what he was doing in Antarctica,
1:28.5	I suppose to a certain extent this expedition is trying to do the same. So maybe Frank Hurley
1:33.8	should be my sort of inspiration for the next few weeks. Let's hope I ended up being
1:37.9	forced to fashion a build pump for an escape craft. It would look a lot like a bucket.
	...

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