Sir Ernest Shackleton’s glorious epic of the Antarctic.
In 1914, the Endurance sailed from Buenos Aires taking British explorer Ernest Shackleton and his 28-man crew to land on, then cross, Antarctica via the South Pole. Disaster struck and Endurance, trapped in pack ice, drifted northward throughout a long, dark Antarctic winter, the ship slowly being crushed by the ice. Onboard, pioneering photographer/film maker, Frank Hurley, captured sensational footage of the Antarctic, the ship and crew (who all survived), giving cinema audiences the first moving images of the staggering beauty of this remote and alien continent. This was as astounding then as seeing images of distant planets is to us today. The film, recently restored to wonderful quality by The National Film Archive, was a sensation and continues to be an astonishing feat of film-making telling of an astonishing feat of endurance.
With live music from Jonny Best, one of the UK’s leading improvising silent film pianists and the founding artistic director of Northern Silents, this is an unmissable and memorable movie matinee experience.
Presented by and part of Hexham Abbey Festival of Music and Arts 2026.
Music: Jonny Best (piano)
A film by Frank Hurley
Year: 1919
Country: UK
Length: 85 mins
