Frozen Mash: a night of Antarctic Cinema at the National Film and Sound Archive

Along with supplies of diesel fuel and food, new staff and scientific equipment, the supply ships that came after long months of frozen seas would bring with them a fresh stock of 16mm films for the diversion of the staff manning our research stations Davis, Mawson and Casey in Antarctica, and on Macquarie Island.

But tedium can be the mother of invention, and so long months with the same films and a staff of highly educated men and women with time on their hands saw film nights where films were inventively spliced together, subliminal messaging was edited in, or where the sound was turned down and new dialogue delivered.

These 16mm film prints, collected over 60 years, made their way to Canberra's National Film and Sound Archive vaults, and the NFSA are presenting a special screening of some on Wednesday June 21 along with conversations with the film's original projectionists.

Ian McLean is a Senior Communications Technical Officer for the Australian Antarctic Division and has done nine 12-month blocks across all four stations since commencing work for the AAD 25 years ago.

"For my first Winter in 1992, there was no internet, only basic email, still using telexes, so a real limitation on what you could send home and get back," McLean recalls, "so entertaining ourselves was important, lots of hobbies like woodwork, Saturday dinners were a big thing you would dress up for, and of course we had movies several nights a week."

McLean says he found himself volunteered as projectionist, on projection equipment that often left a lot to be desired.

"These machines would only get back to Australia every few years to be serviced and sometimes they'd come back in a worse state than when they left," he laughs.

"We didn't have spare parts so when they broke we would sometimes get inventive, and they were constantly going out of focus, or the film would break, but then that was part of the experience."

The AAD stations had built quite a collection of 16mm film prints over the years (Mawson Station has been in service since 1947).

"We had a lot of films from the 1940s and 50s," McLean says, "lots of Ealing pictures from the UK, lots of Westerns, I think the Alec Guinness film The Man in the White Suit was a bit of a favorite."

McLean recounts some of the finer impromptu editing jobs the Station staff imposed on this collection of films.

"I do remember a modified 40,000 Horsemen, a great Aussie film," he says of Charles Chauvel's classic 1940 war movie, "and there is a scene with horses riding down sand dunes into which somebody had spliced a bunch of motorcycles riding at them in the opposite direction."

McLean says that the arrival of the internet changed the social dynamic of life at our Antarctic stations.

"It could be exasperating at times, people disappearing into their rooms to spend the night on the internet," he says, and although the movies nights still continue and with more robust technology, there are things the staff miss about film in its original format.

"Having to change the reel of the 16mm film every 20 minutes gave everyone a chance to stretch their legs or refill their glass," McLean says, "and we sometimes joke that we'd like a special DVD player that stops the film every 20 minutes."

After DVD had become the format of choice, the Australian Antarctic Division donated its collection of 16mm prints from its bases to the National Film and Sound Archive in 2010, and Film Curator Sally Jackson says they are one of her favourite treasures of the NFSA collection.

"This is cinema in isolation," Jackson says.

"The fact that these films have come from the Antarctic, they've been a part of these people's lives, they took them seriously and they clearly loved them," she says, "is what makes them significant part of our screen history."

Jackson says the collection was more than just film prints.

"As we were interacting with the donation, we had lists sent from each of the Stations, sometimes with ratings," she says, "so we knew what their favourite films were, or they had left messages for future staff on the film cans like 'don't bother about this,' or 'You need a drink to enjoy this film.'"

Jackson says she soon learned the shorthand of the messaging staff left.

"As a film archivist, when I see the letters VS I think of 'Vinegar Syndrome' (the condition where old film has begun to compose, which has a nasty smell akin to vinegar associated with it)," Jackson says, "but VS printed on one of these Antarctic prints means 'Visual Surprise', where there are fun edits to look for in the print."

"Speaking to some of the staff from that era, they tell me their editing jobs were a way of generating a bit of excitement and mystery for another viewing of a film they might have already seen a couple of times," she says.

While the collection is extensive, Jackson says she was disappointed to find neither version of The Thing (the schlock horror film about an alien attacking the staff of Polar research station) among them, but says the prints have great value because many also have their original pre-film shorts attached to them.

Sally Jackson, along with staff from the Australian Antarctic Division, will be presenting a screening of the 1950s sci-fi film Target Earth, drawn from the NFSA's Antarctic Collection, at the Archive next Wednesday June 21 at Arc Cinema in Canberra City.

The film will run with its original cartoon and short feature, and Jackson will show fragments of some of the highlights of the Collection – some of those great edited moments – in addition to a live cross to Casey Station to talk about life on the Antarctic today.

The event includes free hot chocolate and Glauhwine, and guests will be greeted at the door by some of the four-legged members of the Canberra Sled Dog Club.

Tickets available at trybooking.com/PNUY

Cris Kennedy is engagement manager at NFSA.