South: Sir Ernest Shackleton's Glorious Epic of the Antarctic

An extraordinary story of survival in the wastes of Antarctica.

A record of one of the greatest survival stories in the history of exploration, South is the original film – exquisitely photographed by Frank Hurley – of Shackleton’s 1914-16 Endurance expedition to Antarctica, during which the ship was crushed by ice, stranding the crew. Now considered the world’s first documentary feature, South was restored in pre-digital days by the BFI National Archive with its original tinting. The film was digitally remastered for its centenary release in 2019, with a newly commissioned score by Neil Brand.

Shackleton's death over 100 years ago in 1922 is seen to have marked the end of the ‘heroic age’ of Antarctic exploration.