Keswick Film Club - The Great White Silence

Synopsis

A BFI National Archive restoration

A hundred years ago the British Antarctic Expedition (1910-1913) led by Captain Scott set out on its ill-fated race to the South Pole. Joining Scott on board the Terra Nova was official photographer and cinematographer Herbert Ponting, and the images that he captured have fired imaginations ever since.

Ponting filmed almost every aspect of the expedition: the scientific work, life in camp and the local wildlife. Most importantly, Ponting recorded the preparations for the assault on the Pole - from the trials of the caterpillar track sledges to clothing and cooking equipment - giving us a real sense of the challenges faced by the expedition.

Ponting used his footage in various forms over the years and in 1924 he re-edited it into this remarkable feature. The BFI National Archive has restored the film and reintroduced the film’s sophisticated use of colour along with with a new score by Simon Fisher Turner featuring the composer, the Elysian Quartet, Sarah Scutt, David Coulter and Alexander L'Estrange.

Thanks to BFI