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* Matthew Henson: Explorer; Schlessinger Video Productions; 1994; 30m. VHS 6546
Chronicles the life of arctic explorer Matthew Henson.
* 90 Degrees South; Milestone Film ∓ Video; 1992; 72m. VHS 8170
The authentic synchronized film record of the last expedition of the great polar explorer Captain Robert F. Scott, R.N.C.V.O. Chronicles Scott’s heroic and ultimately tragic race for the South Pole, where he not only lost the race to Roald Amundsen but lost his own life as well.
* The Prize of the Pole; First Run/Icarus Films; 2006; 78m. DVD 4282
This documentary combines biography and history as it accompanies the Inuit hunter Hivshu, a.k.a. Robert E. Peary II, on a quest to trace the story of his great grandfather and his other ancestors, including the Eskimo family the famous Arctic explorer brought back with him to New York as part of an exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History in 1897.
* Shackleton’s Boat Voyage: The Story of the James Caird; Milestone Film & Video; 2000; 31m. VHS 8171
After losing their ship the Endurance to crushing pack ice and surviving for months on an uninhabited island in Antarctica, Sir Ernest Shackleton and his men had only one escape available. This follow-up to the documentary South: Sir Ernest Shackleton and the Endurance Expedition chronicles their impossible journey of 800 miles in an open 23-foot-long boat, the James Caird.
* South: Sir Ernest Shackleton and the Endurance Expedition; Milestone Film & Video; 2000; 81m. DVD 466
Chronicles the 1914 expedition of Sir Ernest Shackleton to cross Antarctica via the South Pole. With an eye toward profiting from this adventure, Shackleton hired experienced cameraman Frank Hurley, whose films and photographs would hopefully pay for part of the expedition. One of the greatest epics in the history of exploration, this is the original 1919 film produced by Shackleton and Frank Hurley.
* Ten Who Dared; BBC Television/Ambrose Video; 1978; 10 videocassettes, 493 m. total VHS 2330
Presents the stories of ten explorations in an award-winning dramatic production that captures the age of explorers. Contents: pt.1. Christopher Columbus (51 min.) — pt. 2. Francisco Pizarro (51 min.) — pt. 3. Captain James Cook (53 min.) — pt. 4. Alexander von Humboldt (52 min.) — pt. 5. Jedediah Smith (48 min.) — pt. 6. Burke and Wills (51 min.) — pt. 7. Henry Morton Stanley (51 min.) — pt. 8. Charles Montagu Doughty (51 min.) — pt. 9. Mary Kingsley (51 min.) — pt. 10. Roald Amundsen (34 min.).
* Thirty Years of National Geographic Specials; National Geographic Society/Warner Home Video; 2000; 95m. DVD 1076
Celebrates 30 years of televised specials by the National Geographic Society. Includes a program entitled “The Explorers,” which features Arctic explorer Robert E. Peary.
*With Byrd at the South Pole; Milestone Film & Video/Image Entertainment; 1930; 83m. DVD 212
Film taken on the Byrd Antarctic expedition with an onscreen spoken introduction by Byrd. Primarily a silent film with inter-titles and musical score, with narration in the last section.
* Antarctic Wildlife Adventure; National Geographic Society; 1991; 60m. VHS 6914
Follows a family of real-life Antarctic explorers. Aboard the 50-foot schooner Damien II, a husband-wife naturalist team and their three sons sail through the islands of the pristine Antarctic peninsula, viewing rocky coasts, icebergs, and a wide variety of wildlife including humpback whales, elephant seals, penguins, and more.
* Arctic Kingdom: Life at the Edge; National Geographic Television; 1996; 83m. VHS 7235
The Arctic, one of the harshest places on earth, is shown to be the home of an astounding variety of wildlife.
* Life in the Freezer; BBC Video; 2005; 180m. DVD 2817
Explores Antarctica, the wildest, coldest, most isolated continent on Earth. Covered and surrounded by 90% of the world’s ice, its 14 million square kilometers are doubled each winter by the freezing of the sea. Yet this inhospitable landscape is home to a surprisingly rich variety of wildlife, much of it unique to the region.
* March of the Penguins; Warner Home Video; 2005; 80m. DVD 2246
French filmmaker Luc Jacquet and his devoted crew endured a full year of extreme conditions in Antarctica to capture the life cycle of Emperor penguins on film for this striking documentary. Focuses on a colony of hundreds of Emperors as they return, in a single-file march of 70 miles or more, to their frozen breeding ground, far inland from the oceans where they thrive. The film conveys the intensity of the penguins’ breeding cycle, and their treacherous task of protecting eggs and hatchlings in temperatures as low as 128 degrees below zero.
* Planet Earth; Discovery Communications, Inc.; 2006; 5 videodiscs, 550m. DVD 3936
An 11-part series that presents rare footage of Earth’s landscapes and wildlife. Disc 2 contains the episode “Ice Worlds.”
* Reindeer in the Arctic: A Study in Adaptation; Penn State Audio-Visual Services; 1992; 25m. VHS 4145
Compares the evolutionary adaptations of reindeer living in the extreme cold of the Svalbard region with those of the Norwegian mainland. Discusses the differences and similarities of their physiologic structure and the different environments.
* Baked Alaska; Bullfrog Films; 2002; 26m. VHS 9255
Documentary about how rising temperatures and the battle over the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) are impacting life in Alaska.
* Global Warming: The Melting of Svalbard; Landmark Media; 2007; 28m. DVD 4623
Incredible amounts of ice are melting in the Arctic and the warmer temperatures have made it possible to sail all the way around Svalbard, the northern most civilization in the world. These Arctic islands are the best place to see what happens to nature when global warming spreads.
* The Miracle Planet; Ambrose Video Publishing; 1991; 6 videocassettes, each 60m. VHS 2363
Six-part series about the Earth, the miracle planet, presents various topics including the planet's prospects for continuing to support life, its oceans, climate, and atmosphere. Contents: pt. 1. The Third planet — pt. 2. The Heat within — pt. 3. Life from the sea — pt. 4. Patterns in the air — pt. 5. Riddles of sand and ice. — pt. 6. The Home planet.
* Oil on Ice; Bullfrog Films; 2004; 90m. DVD 1799
A documentary connecting the fate of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to decisions America makes about energy policy, transportation choices, and other seemingly unrelated matters. Caught in the balance are the culture and livelihood of the Gwich'in people and the migratory wildlife in this fragile ecosystem. Discusses the conflict between the oil industry and environmentalists over the future of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
* At the Autumn River Camp; Documentary Educational Resources; 1967; 59m. VHS 5077
Reveals the live reality of traditional Eskimo life before the European acculturation. The film shows the spearing of fish through ice on a river during late fall, and general preparations for the winter ahead. Filmed under ethnographic direction of Dr. Asen Balikci of the University of Montreal, assisted by Guy Mary-Rousseliere.
* At the Caribou Crossing Place; Documentary Educational Resources; 1967; 59m. VHS 5078
Portrays the Netsilik Eskimos in early autumn, showing the men hunting caribou and the women working at the skins, cleaning sinews, and hanging them to dry. Filmed under ethnographic direction of Dr. Asen Balikci of the University of Montreal, assisted by Guy Mary-Rousseliere.
* At the Spring Sea-Ice Camp; Documentary Educational Resource; 1967; 82m. VHS 5096
Portrays the traditional life amoung the Netsilik Eskimos. Shows the men hunting seal through the ice and hunting other animals, as two Eskimo families travel across the sea ice and build small igloos.
* At the Winter Sea-Ice Camp; Documentary Educational Resource; 1967; 136 m. VHS 5069
Presents the traditional way of life of the Netsilik Eskimos of the Pelly Bay Region in the Canadian Arctic as it was lived before European acculturation.
* Building a Kayak; Documentary Educational Resources; 1967; 65m. VHS 5103
Netsilik Eskimos of the Pelly Bay region in the Canadian Arctic build a kayak.
* Fishing at the Stone Weir; Documentary Educational Resources; 1967; 2 videocassettes, each 57m. VHS 4202
These films reveal the live reality of traditional Eskimo life before the European acculturation. The Netsilik Eskimos of the Pelly Bay region in the Canadian Arctic had long lived apart from other people and had depended entirely on the land and their own ingenuity to sustain life through the rigors of the Arctic year.
* If the Weather Permits; National Film Board of Canada; 2003; 27m. VHS 9513
Director Elisapie Issac’s documentary is a “letter” on film to her deceased grandfather addressing the question of Inuit culture in the modern world.
* Jigging For Lake Trout; Documentary Educational Resources; 1967; 32m. VHS 5098
Documents a Netsilik Eskimo family trout fishing. The family begins by building a karmak. Once holes are dug in the ice, both husband and wife fish, even in a blizzard.
* Nanook of the North; Criterion Collection; 1999; 79m. DVD 249, VHS 6039
Reissue of the 1922 silent motion picture of the same title. Presents a documentary on the life of an Eskimo family pitting their strength against a vast and inhospitable Arctic. Juxtaposes their struggle for survival against the elements with the warmth of the family as they go about their daily affairs.
* Nanook Revisited; Films for the Humanities & Sciences; 1994; 55m. VHS 7078
The filmmaker revisits Inukjiak, the Inuit village where Flaherty filmed Nanook of the North. Examines the realities behind the ground-breaking documentary and the changes since it was made almost 70 years ago.
* Oh What a Blow That Phantom Gave Me; Media Generation; 2003; 54m. DVD 1386
This film takes its title from a 1972 book written by anthropologist Edmund Carpenter and explores the positive and negative ways in which media, and film in particular, interact with indigenous cultures. Carpenter and other filmmakers, including Adelaide de Menil, discuss interactions of media and culture in Papua New Guinea and the Canadian Arctic.
* Stalking Seal on the Spring Ice; Documentary Educational Resources; 1989; 2 videocassettes, each 57m. VHS 5100
Portrays the traditional Eskimo life of the Netsilik Eskimos. Shows a family on the shore of Pelly Bay in May and June, how seals are hunted, and how the man and his wife skin the seals.
* The Year of the Hunter; Films for the Humanities & Sciences; 2004; 51m. DVD 1454
This documentary tells the story of the making of Robert Flaherty's Nanook of the North and the Inuit who starred in the film. Clips from the original motion picture are interspersed with dramatizations in which Adamie Inukpuk, Nanook's great-grandson, plays the famed hunter.
* Secrets of the Ice; Text-Films; 1960; 29m. VHS 4920
Describes the origin and growth of glaciers; surveys the works of glaciologists in trying to understand the structure of ice and its importance in the study of climatology, meterorology, and geology. Includes scenes of glaciologists at work in Alaska, Greenland, Antarctica and on Mt. Kenya.
* Silent Messengers; National Film Board of Canada; 2006; 93m. DVD
2955
Explores the mysteries of the Inuksuit, enigmatic stone slabs that mark the pristine landscape of the North. With ethnographer Norman Hallendy and actor/sculptor Natar Ungalaq, we traverse the forbidding terrain around Cape Dorset and Igoolik, in search of these stone symbols and their meanings.
* Sunlight and Ice Crystals in the Skies of Antarctica; Blue Sky Associates; 2000; DVD 1833
Professor Robert Greenler discusses his trips to Antarctica and lectures about his ongoing quest to observe and understand optical sky phenomena that result from the interaction of sunlight with tiny air-borne ice crystals. He describes Antarctica, life at the South Pole Station, and the specific conditions that create halos, sun dogs, and other meteorological conditions.
* Under Antarctic Ice; Thirteen/WNET New York; 2003; 56m. DVD 694
Underwater filmmaker and photographer Nobert Wu and a team of divers explore the world under Antarctica.
* Archangel; Zeitgeist Video; 1990; 83m. DVD 743
A tale of obsessive love in the arctic town of Archangel, where a Canadian soldier, a Belgian pilot, and a Russian nurse, all suffering from amnesia, become involved in a love triangle in which each believes the others to be someone else.
* The Fast Runner; Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment; 2002; 161m. DVD 1401
A small nomadic community is cursed by an unknown shaman. When Atanarjuat falls in love with a woman already promised to the son of the clan’s leader, he has to fight for her. She is won by Atanarjuat and the leader plots to attack him in his sleep. Escaping, he sets off running across the ice, embarking on a harrowing adventure of survival in the brutal wilderness. He returns stronger and wiser to reclaim his life and stop the curse that has divided his people.
* The Red Tent; Paramount; 2005; 121m. DVD 4376
Tells the saga of the ill-fated 1928 Arctic expedition headed by Italian Unberto Nobile. After the crash of their dirigible, Italia, the survivors huddle in their makeshift red canvas dwelling, desperately sending out S.O.S. signals.
* The Thing: From Another World; RKO Radio Pictures/VidAmerica; 1951; 86m. VHS 2973
A U.S. Air Force research team, isolated in the Arctic region, inadvertently thaws out a ferocious being from a space ship.
