NH: I’m slightly obsessed with Hurley because what he achieved then is even today still so hard. He was doing this at the time when film was only really just being invented. South [Hurley’s documentary] is probably one of the first feature documentaries made, ever, in the world, and he shot it in Antarctica on an expedition where they lost their ship.
My main inspiration from Hurley was to go and capture a story in the hardest place on earth, as intimately and viscerally as possible. I wanted to be right inside everything that was happening because no one else could be. We were so far away. That was my guiding principle.
CV: The British Film Institute controls [Hurley’s] footage. We lobbied for a very long time to get permission to color treat it. We worked with a VFX house called Big Star to hone in the right, respectful amount of color, because I didn’t want us to colorize the thing. When you actually see it dressed up with its full mix and with the voices and the music and the color treatment, I had a goosebumps moment where I was like—that’s actually the real footage of the boat sinking. It’s crazy. It’s fresher in a way just because of the technology that’s available to us now.
What part of the film are you most excited for people to see?
NH: The footage of the Endurance! It blew my mind when I saw it. You see the compass and the binnacle and the wheel that the Shackleton steered. I could stare at that for the rest of my life.
What do you think it is about Shackleton’s story that makes it relevant today and something that people ought to learn about?
CV: You think about the civility, the graciousness, the grit that Shackleton and his men had to have in order to find the faith and the strength to survive this, and these moments of the fragility of the human experience, where several times they came this close to dying. The story should make people think about what we are capable of.
RJ: They had more challenges than anyone could imagine facing, and they were able to overcome them all and survive. And I think it’s just that idea of—go and do it.
NH: To get to that place where you basically think you’re going to die—and to be able to come back, and find it within yourself to carry on and to keep going.
On Location is a column that lifts the curtain on the destinations behind the season’s most exciting new releases, from film and television to music. Endurance premiers on National Geographic on November 1 before becoming available to stream on Disney+ on November 2.