BRATTLEBORO — South, a silent documentary created by Frank Hurley, the cameraman recruited by Ernest Shackleton to record his harrowing 1914–1916 attempt to reach the South Pole, will be screened at Epsilon Spires on Saturday, Aug. 6.
The film will be scored live with an improvised soundtrack by the Psychedelic Cinema Orchestra, which accompanied the Super 8 film collages of Ken Brown at the venue last year.
Shackleton and his crew were stranded in the Antarctic when their ship, the HMS Endurance, became trapped in glacial ice.
For over two years, Hurley documented the lives of the crew and their sled dogs as they struggled to survive the harshest weather ever recorded in the region.
When the Endurance was crushed by encroaching ice and sank, Hurley stripped naked and plunged into the freezing water to save his glass negatives and film footage.
Earlier this year, researchers located the Endurance, well-preserved and perched upright on the seafloor, 2 miles below the surface of the ocean. The wooden ship is undergoing extensive documentation as a historic site and monument under the Antarctic Treaty.
“The recent discovery of the Endurance is a perfect occasion to celebrate Frank Hurley's remarkable film, which has been newly restored by the British Film Institute,” Jamie Mohr, the executive director of Epsilon Spires, said in a news release. “The confluence of art and natural science is a cornerstone of our programming.”
The Psychedelic Cinema Orchestra is a trio of musicians led by Ken Winokur, a percussionist who will use what he calls “repurposed junk” to create unexpected rhythms in harmony with the twists and turns of South.
Winokur will be joined by multi-instrumentalists Jonathan LaMaster and Russ Gershon.
Doors open at 8 p.m., and the performance will begin shortly after 8:30 p.m. In order to avoid disrupting the program, audience members are advised to arrive within that window of time.
Tickets are $18 and can be purchased at epsilonspires.org.