The 8-minute home video that launched a thousand frozen corpses. Shackleton's doomed glory starts here.
Footage of the expedition leaving Antarctica from New Zealand shot by government cameraman James McDonald. His excellency Admiral Sir Wilmot Hawksworth Fawkes, Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Navy's Australian Station, visits and inspects the "Nimrod."
Cinematography
Primitive cameras capturing primitive hubris
Production
Documentary as imperial propaganda machine
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
James McDonald was New Zealand's first government cinematographer; this is among the earliest Antarctic footage ever shot.
Shackleton's 1908 expedition would ultimately fail to reach the South Pole, with three men nearly dying on the return journey—making this cheerful departure almost unbearably ironic.
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