From National Geographic Documentary Films and directed by Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin and Natalie Hewit, ENDURANCE tells the inspiring stories of two landmark expeditions, bound by their shared grit and determination.

IN ASSOCIATION WITH BFI LONDON FILM FESTIVAL

STORY 

In a legendary feat of leadership and perseverance, polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton kept his crew of 27 men alive for over a year despite the loss of their ship in frigid pack ice. Over a century later, a team of modern-day explorers sets out to find the sunken ship. From National Geographic Documentary Films and directed by Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin and Natalie Hewit, ENDURANCE tells the inspiring stories of these two landmark expeditions, bound by their shared grit and determination. 

FILMMAKERS - Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin

Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin are Academy Award®-winning filmmakers and the directors and producers of “Free Solo,” the intimate and unflinching portrait of rock climber Alex Honnold that won seven Emmys, a BAFTA and the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 2019. Their first film together, “Meru,” won the Audience Award at Sundance in 2015 and was on the 2016 Oscar shortlist for Best Documentary Feature. More recently, they directed and produced “Wild Life,” A sweeping portrait of conservationists Kris and Doug Tompkins chronicling their fight to preserve wild land in Chile and Argentina. Other projects include National Geographic’s DGA-nominated and Emmy-winning documentary “The Rescue,” chronicling the against-all-odds rescue of 12 boys and their coach from deep inside a flooded cave in northern Thailand; “Return to Space,” about SpaceX and NASA’s first joint spaceflight, which hit the top 10 on Netflix’s most-watched films list; and two series for National Geographic: “Edge of the Unknown with Jimmy Chin” and “Photographer.” Their first scripted feature, “Nyad,” about Diana Nyad’s 110-mile swim from Cuba to Florida, began streaming on Netflix in the fall of 2023 and garnered Academy Award, Golden Globe, and SAG nominations for both stars Jodie Foster and Annette Bening.  

director and producer - Natalie Hewit

Natalie Hewit is an award-winning director and producer who has been making primetime documentaries and series for major terrestrial and international broadcasters for over a decade. Her work has received widespread industry recognition and critical acclaim, including nominations for a BAFTA and a Royal Television Society Award for Channel 4’s “Surviving Covid,” a feature documentary filmed over two months inside an ICU ward during the first wave of the COVID 19 pandemic in London. She also received Grierson and Broadcast Award nominations for the BBC’s drama-doc “The Drug Trial: Emergency at the Hospital.” With human narratives at their core, her projects have taken her to numerous remote and highly challenging locations. In 2016, she spent three months filming “Antarctica: Ice Station Rescue” at the Halley VI Research Station for the BBC’s prestigious “Horizon” science series, which was nominated for Best Documentary at the Broadcast Awards. Her work has also led her to collaborate with various high-profile talent, including Greta Thunberg and Louis Theroux. ENDURANCE marks her second National Geographic feature and second visit to Antarctica, where she documented the expedition to find the wreck of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s infamous ship in the toughest conditions on the planet. Hewit is known for her passion for narratives that explore what it means to be human, resulting in her work being deemed “Five Stars ‒ Essential” by the Financial Times and “haunting and powerful” by The Guardia

REVIEWS

“Stunning”
- The Hollywood Reporter

★★★★
- The Observer

★★★★
“Gripping”
- The Telegraph

“Fascinating”
- Screen Daily

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