Roald Amundsen's South Pole Expedition

1912 Documentary 17 minutes Directed by Roald Amundsen

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About Roald Amundsen's South Pole Expedition

The film is Roald Amundsen's own footage from the 1910–1912 South Pole expedition, cut for the lectures he gave in 1912. It shows the Fram at Akershus Fortress in the summer of 1910, dogs being loaded, drift ice, whales in the Bay of Whales, and the ice shelf. Penguins appear, including Knut Sundbeck with a king penguin, and dogs bother a seal. At Framheim the teams are made ready, the sledges leave into the ice, a photograph of the pole is shown, the sledges come back, and the Fram is prepared for the voyage home.

Cast & crew

More about Roald Amundsen's South Pole Expedition

Amundsen is credited as director, writer, and producer of the lecture film Roald Amundsens sydpolsferd. It was first shown in 1912 and he took it on his lecture tour. Thorvald Nilsen, Hjalmar Fredrik Gjertsen, and Kristian Prestrud are among the men in the party on camera. The Norwegian Film Institute restored it and had the music re-recorded.

Themes

  • The Fram leaving Oslo
  • Dogs and sledges on the ice shelf
  • A still of the pole
  • Roald Amundsen
  • Fram
  • Framheim
  • Bay of Whales
  • South Pole
  • penguins
  • sledges

Background

Amundsen's party reached the South Pole on 14 December 1911, about a month before Robert Falcon Scott.

Music

The Norwegian Film Institute restoration uses a newly recorded score. No original composer is named.

Preservation

The Norwegian Film Institute restored the film. UNESCO inscribed it on the Memory of the World register in 2005.

Notes

  • Wikipedia times a copy at 16 minutes 35 seconds.
  • UNESCO added it to the Memory of the World register in 2005. It is also on Norway's documentary-heritage list.
  • In 2010 the material was issued on DVD as Roald Amundsens sydpolsferd (1910–1912).
  • The National Library of Norway holds expedition footage from the film.

Awards

  • UNESCO Memory of the World (2005)

Scenes

  • Dogs are taken aboard the Fram at Akershus.
  • Knut Sundbeck meets a king penguin.
  • The sledges disappear into the ice, and a picture of the pole is cut in.

Also available

  • Internet Archive (silent-roald-amundsens-sydpolsferd-1910-1912)
  • Norwegian Film Institute
  • National Library of Norway
  • Roald Amundsens sydpolsferd (1910–1912) (DVD, 2010)