Southern Ocean Cinema Club by Mel Leng

Markos screening the original Shackleton
footage of his 1915-1918 expedition
to the Southern Ocean

On board the Polarstern we have our very own artist is residence, Markos Kern of MarkosMedia. One of the concepts Markos is interested in is the immediacy of  art and documenting people’s reactions to seeing and showing art in unusual situations. He has various projects on the ship but one that we had the privilege to witness last night was a showing of the original footage of Shackleton’s epic exploration of the Antarctic during the first world war. Markos does big art and he wanted to screen and document a bunch of modern day scientists sailing across the Southern Ocean watching  film footage of the early exploration of the southern pole. 

So after dark Markos set up deck chairs and invited us all to wrap up warm against the sub zero wind and watch the footage which he projected onto the side of the ship. It sounds chilly (it was) but it was an amazing experience, and the biting cold brought home a little of the truly terrible conditions that the expeditions members had to endure. We reclined on the heli deck in bright orange survival suits, sipped hot red wine and watched Frank Hurley’s film (the cinematographer on the voyage) of their epic adventure…  




The Endurance projected onto the side of the Polarstern while sailing across the Southern Ocean

 More information on Shackleton’s expedition to the southern ocean ending in South Georgia can be found on wikipedia.

Melanie Leng is on an expedition to South Georgia, see her previous blogs, and follow her on twitter @MelJLeng