Historical Films

  • Includes semi-historical re-creations' of expeditions
  • More details on the films can be found on IMDB
  • Fiction films are listed here
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed are those of LK and do not reflect the views of Barnard College
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Pole Year Title Comments
N 1912 The Truth About the Pole Frederick Cook produced and starred in this self promotional short docudrama, in which he claims to have discovered the North Pole, online here
S 1913 Roald Amundsen paa Sydpolen Norway, 1 minute, Roald Amundsen at the South Pole,
S 1913 Dr. Mawson in the Antarctic AUS; director Frank Hurley
S 1919 South AUS/UK; Frank Hurley’s film of Shackleton’s 1914-1916 expedition
N 1922 Nanook of the North
S 1922 The Great White Silence UK; Ponting’s silent? documentary of the Scott expedition to the South Pole, new releases were restored by BFI National Archive
S 1929 With Byrd at the South Pole
N 1930 Mot ukjent land Norway; documentary about Norwegian expedition 1929-1930
S 1933 90 Degrees South: With Scott to the Antarctic UK: re-release of Ponting’s documentary with narration
S 1935 Into Little America Documentary of Admiral Byrd’s second expedition to Antarctica in 1934.
S 1948 The Secret Land documentary of the US Navy `Operation High Jump' expedition led by Admiral Byrd, narrated by 3 well known actors, first non-war-related film to win a Documentary Oscar here
S 1949 Scott of the Antarctic UK; melodramatic dramatization iof Scott's expedition to the South Pole
S 1949 Antarctica 1948 AUS; BW documentary about the Australian National Research Exploration to Antarctica 1947-48.
N 1949 Terre des glaces France; short documentary that retraces the first French polar expedition in Greenland in 1936
S 1949 The Official Film of the Mawson Antarctic Expedition AUS; director Frank Hurley, edited from 1913 Dr Mawson in the Antarctic
S 1954 Roald Amundsen Norway; documentary
S 1954 Blue Ice AUS; short documentary about the 1954 expedition which set up a new Antarctic station 'Mawson'
S 1955-1958 The Trans-Antarctic Expedition UK; documentary, 6 episode TV series
S 1963 12 Flags South AUS; BW TV documentary about Byrd and Mawson
N 1968 Bare et liv - historien om Fridtjof Nansen Norway/USSR; biographical drama about Nansen
N 1971 The Conquered Dream Canada/BBC; documentary history about exploration of Arctic Canada
S 1982 Shackleton UK; TV movie
N 1983 Cook & Peary: The Race to the Pole Canada/US; TV drama, race to the North Pole
S 1985 Last Place on Earth UK; Masterpiece Theater, 7.5 hrs, based on Huntford's version
S 1988 Struggle for the Pole: In the Footsteps of Scott WGBH PBS series ‘Adventure’, episode S2E5. Also episode S3E5 ‘Polar Passage’
S 1989 Conquest of the South Pole UK; TV movie, incl Alan Cumming, unemployed Edinburgh youths embark on a recreation of Amundsen's expedition to the South Pole.
S 1990 Trans Antarctica! TV; Will Steger expedition
N 1990 Nanook Revisted Canadian, revisits site of Flaherty's filming
S 1993 The Forbidden Quest Netherlands; in 1905, a Norse ship sails to Antarctica
N 1994 Matthew Henson video from 'Black Americans of Achievement' collection II
S 1995 Height of Courage: The Norman Vaughan Story National Geographic TV: At age 89, Vaughan became the first to climb a 10,300 ft mtn, named after him by Admiral Byrd 60 years earlier. (He'd hoped to climb it again at 100, but died a few days after the birthday).
N 1997 En frusen dröm Sweden/Norway/Denmark; documentary about S. A. Andrees’ 1897 polar expedition
S 1997 Richard Byrd- Alone in Antarctica TV; episode S1E5 of The Adventurers
N 1998 Glory and Honor TNT TV Movie about Henson and Peary
S 1999 Alone on the Ice Episode S11E4 of 'American Experience', documentary about Admiral Byrd in Antarctica
S 1999 Scott of the Antarctic UK; S1E1 of ‘The Great Adventurers’
S 1999 Frosset Hjerte (Frozen Heart: A Film About Roald Amundsen) Norwegian and Czech, Canadian/English version 2000, post-South Pole race, Amundsen pines after married women, loses money, tries to retain fame
S 1999 Sir Ernest Shackleton UK; S1E5 of ‘The Great Adventurers’
S 1999 Escape from Antarctica: On the Trail of Shackleton Ireland; Irish adventurers trace Shackleton’s crossing of Antarctica
N/S 2000 Race for the Poles South Pole race includes interviews with Huntford, Preston, and Spufford
S 2000 Poles Apart: American Women's Expedition documentary
S 2000 The Endurance - Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition narrated by Liam Neeson
S 2001 Shackleton's Antarctic Adventure IMAX, with Kevin Spacey
S 2001 Shackleton and Scott: Rivals for the Pole Ireland; documentary
S 2001 Der Pinguin Mann Swiss; world famous Swiss photographer died on 22nd Antarctic expedition near Emperor penguins
N 2001 IMAX Great North with Nanook's grandson
S 2002 Shackleton - The Greatest Survival Story of All Time UK/US A&E Emmy winning TV mini-series, starring Kenneth Branagh
S 2002 Shackleton's Voyage of Endurance S29E6 of PBS Nova
S 2002 Antarctica: A Frozen History History Channel documentary
S 2003 Secrets of the Dead: Tragedy at the Pole Susan Solomon's version of race to South Pole
S 2003 Ice Bound TV movie about Jerri Nielson, who treated herself for breast cancer while wintering at the South Pole
N 2005 Modern Marvels: Subzero History Channel
N 2005 Minik - New York ist kalter als der Nordpol German documentary
N 2006 Arctic Passage PBS NOVA; Ice Survivors (S33E7) and Prisoners of the Ice (S33E8)
N 2006 The Ice King UK; BBC Voyages of Discovery series, on Fridtjof Nansen
N/S 2006 Blizzard: Race to the Pole UK; 6 part BBC2 TV series, race to South Pole duplicated in Greenland using 1911 gear, supplies and strategies. The `Scott' team loses `Survivor Greenland'
N 2006 The Prize of the Pole Denmark; documentary, about Minik and Inuit Robert Peary II (great-grandchild of Robert Peary)
S 2006 The Journals of Knud Rasmussen Canada/Denmark/Greenland; Drama about an Inuit shaman and his daughter, based on the 1920s journal of Rasmussen
S 2006 Surviving Extremes AUS/UK; Mawson’s and future Mars expeditions
N 2007 Nunatak, for Live Earth 7/7/07 YouTube
N/S 2007 Quest For Adventure 2 DVD set includes With Byrd at the South Pole, First Flight over the North Pole, & The Amundsen Polar Flight
S 2007 Mawson: Life and Death in Antarctica AUS/UK; Original title: When Hell Freezes
N 2007 Top Gear: Polar Special UK; BBC TV. Monster truck with 2 `middle aged drunk Brits' and dogsled team race to the magnetic North Pole. Very funny. Supposedly first to `drive' to North Pole but they cheat! (another truck pulls them out when stuck)
N 2008 Minik, the Lost Eskimo US, PBS: episode S20E10 of 'American Experience'. A shorter adaption of the 2005 German film above
S 2008 Antarctica, 1939 - 1941 National Archives footage of Byrd's Antarctic expedition
S 2009 On Thin Ice UK; BBC TV, 5 hrs. A double Olympic gold medalist, a TV presenter, and a doctor form teams and race to the South Pole. There's also a book.
S 2009 Discoverer UK documentary about the British Army Antarctic Expedition in a cramped British military yacht
N 2009 Arctic Shadows Canada; Documentary, The Arctic Journeys of Dr. R. M. Anderson, who had many expeditions to the Arctic starting in 1908.
N 2009 C.B.Q.M. Canada; Documentary about radio station in Canadian NWT north of the Arctic Circle
N 2009 The Experimental Eskimos Canada; Documentary, in early 1960s Inuit children were separated from their families and sent to white schools, here 3 grew up to be political activists and leaders
S 2011 William Speirs Bruce UK; S1E2 of The Last Explorers. Among other polar trips, Bruce led the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition 1902-4 & established the first Antarctic permanent weather station
S 2011 The Mawson Australasian Antarctic Expedition 1911-1913 AUS; short documentary, reconstruction of Mawson’s lectures
N/S 2011 Great Expeditions: Search for the Greatest Polar Explorer National Geographic TV, on Amundsen
S 2011 Secrets of Scott's Hut BBC Two; Ben Fogle joins an expedition across Antarctica to find Captain Scott's Hut. With Ranulph Fiennes; Scott's diaries are read by (who else) Kenneth Branagh.
S 2012 Mawson: Science and Survival AUS; documentary
S 2012 Shackleton's Captain NZ; documentary
S 2012 Expeditionen ins ewige Eis Germany; documentary about Prussian scientist Alfred Wegener
N 2013 North Pole Promise short documentary about Harvard Prof. S Allen Counter's trip to Greenland to meet the 80 year old Inuit sons of Robert Peary and Matthew Henson
S 2014 Mawson in the Mirror AUS; documentary
S 2015 Sir Hubert Wilkins: Polar Explorer and Aviator AUS; short
N 2015 Igloolik, a real tale Spain; documentary history of the Canadian government’s control over Inuit society and the Nunavut region
N 2015 Arctic Ghost Ship TV; episode S42E14 of PBS NOVA. Canadian team discovers one of Franklin’s lost ships
S 2019 Amundsen Norway & Sweden; biographical drama about his quest of the North Pole. US version subtitled 'the greatest expedition' (2021)
S 2019 Expedition Picture Albums UK; S4E30 of 'The Repair Shop'. Some of Scott’s South Pole albums are restored.
S 2020 1911: la conquête du Pôle Sud Episode S3E8 of ‘Dates That Made History’
S 2021 Thin Ice VR AUS: 20 min historical re-creation of Shackleton by Tim Jarvis
N/S 2021 The Eye of Wilkins AUS; documentary about polar explorer and photographer Sir George Hubert Wilkins
N 2022 Untold Arctic Wars Finland; 6 episode Documentary about far northern events in WWII
N 2022 Against the Ice Iceland/Denmark. Netflix film about 2 Danish explorers trying to survive in Greenland in 1909
S 2023 Shackleton: The Greatest Story of Survival AUS: Tim Jarvis follows in footsteps of Shackleton’s Endurance expedition
Historical Films