The Great White Silence

Herbert Ponting joined Captain Scott's Terra Nova expedition of 1910 to 1913 as official photographer and cinematographer. He filmed on the ship, on the ice and in the camps: penguins, seals, moving glaciers, the men's daily work, and the Antarctic light. Scott and four companions reached the South Pole and died on the way back. Ponting was not with them on that final journey. Ponting re-edited the footage in 1924 into this film. Because the narrative knows how the expedition ended it proceeds from the start like a lament: most of the people we see did not come back, and the film does not conceal it. The images were tinted and toned with the techniques of the period. The BFI restored the film in 2011 and Simon Fisher Turner wrote a new score; in that form the colour can be seen again. Who it's for: Anyone curious about silent cinema, polar expeditions, and the history of early documentary. Who it's not for: The telling is slow and rests on intertitles. Some of the animal footage was also shot to the standards of its time and there are moments uncomfortable to present-day eyes.