Directors Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin and Natalie Hewit to Direct National Geographic Documentary

Today, National Geographic Documentary Films announced that Academy Award-winning directors Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin along with BAFTA-nominated director Natalie Hewit are set to direct ENDURANCE (working title), a documentary film based on the epic search to find the lost ship of Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton. The announcement comes on the heels of the one-year anniversary of the ship’s discovery, found on March 5th, 2022, in an expedition funded and organized by the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust. 

Ruth Johnston, Consequential’s multiple Emmy Award winning producer and executive producer of Academy Award winner 'Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)' ('Hunger Ward,' 'Master of Light') is producing. Chai and Chin will produce under their Academy, BAFTA and multiple Emmy Award-winning production company Little Monster Films. Academy Award nominee and five-time Emmy winner Bob Eisenhardt will serve as editor and producer. Executive producers include Dan Jones and Paul Woolf with Little Dot Studios, Consequential’s Ted Richane, History Hit’s Dan Snow and Bill Locke, Anna Barnes of Little Monster Films, and Carolyn Bernstein with National Geographic Documentary Films. 

Exclusive partners on ENDURANCE (working title) include Little Dot Studios (an All3Media company), an award-winning digital content agency, media network and production company; impact-driven production company Consequential; and History Hit, the SVOD and content platform co-founded by historian Dan Snow. ENDURANCE (working title) will be available exclusively on National Geographic Channels and Disney+. A release date has not been set.

Previously announced as part of National Geographic’s 'Explorer' series, the project is now in production as its own feature documentary film with Chai, Jimmy and Natalie at the helm.

“We are delighted to share this inspiring story of exploration, grit and perseverance with the world,” said Carolyn Bernstein, executive vice president of Documentary Films for National Geographic. “Chai and Jimmy are bold, ambitious and nuanced storytellers, perfectly cast to bring this gripping story to life, along with their exceptionally talented co-director Nat Hewit, who has a unique first-hand perspective as part of the Endurance22 expedition. We feel privileged to share this astounding discovery with audiences around the world and to dramatise the extraordinary tale of survival that started it all.”

Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust organised and funded the expedition to locate the shipwreck off the coast of Antarctica, where the Endurance sank in 1915. The ship remained inaccessible and undiscovered for over a century until its discovery on March 5th, 2022 ― 100 years after Sir Ernest Shackleton’s death. The expedition was led by polar geographer Dr. John Shears with marine archaeologist Mensun Bound as director of exploration and Nicolas (Nico) Vincent as expedition subsea manager. Joining them on board the South African icebreaker Agulhas II was a crew of scientists, archaeologists, and a team of highly experienced extreme environment filmmakers, led by director Natalie Hewit and Dan Snow, who documented the events leading up to the historic discovery in real time for History Hit. To help locate the shipwreck, the team used submersibles called Saab Sabretooths equipped with 4k cameras and lighting arrays. The ship continues to remain untouched and without any artifacts removed, but the results of the discovery will provide significant insights into Ernest Shackleton’s imperial trans-Antarctic expedition and offer an incredible opportunity to bring the stories of Shackleton and the 27 men on his crew to new generations.

“We have dedicated our careers to telling stories about the edge of human experience, exploration and possibility,” said directors Vasarhelyi and Chin. “Ernest Shackleton’s Endurance is the definitive true story of adventure and survival against all odds. With the discovery of his long-lost ship - which sank over 100 years ago in the unforgiving Weddell Sea - by a group of fearless explorers and scientists, we are able to revisit Shackleton’s story of hardship, bravery and leadership with a fresh lens. We are thrilled to be able to work with Nat Hewit and the team and look forward to using cutting-edge technology to bring this story of friendship, grit, inspiration and discovery to contemporary audiences of all ages.”

“It was the adventure of a lifetime to be part of the Endurance22 expedition, and I’m excited to be collaborating with Chai, Jimmy, Ruth and the rest of the team to bring this incredible story to audiences everywhere,” said director Natalie. “What happened to Shackleton and his crew on the Weddell Sea - and how they responded and persevered - is the stuff of legend. Having been part of this amazing discovery, I am so honoured to have the opportunity to tell the inspiring story of Shackleton and his crew, capturing important history while showcasing the very cutting edge in deep sea exploration and filmmaking technology that helped us to make history in March 2022.”

Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin are Academy Award-winning filmmakers. The two are the directors and producers of 'Free Solo,' which was awarded a BAFTA and the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 2019. Their first film together, 'Meru,' won the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival in 2015 and was on the 2016 Oscar shortlist for Best Documentary Feature. More recently, they directed the BAFTA- and DGA-nominated documentary 'The Rescue,' chronicling the against-all-odds rescue of 12 boys and their coach from deep inside a flooded cave in northern Thailand. Their upcoming documentary film 'Wild Life' premiered at the Telluride Film Festival in 2022 and will be available in theatres, on the National Geographic channel and on Disney+ later this year. Other projects include 'Return to Space,' about SpaceX and NASA’s first joint spaceflight, which hit the top 10 on Netflix’s most-watched films list, and the National Geographic series 'Edge of the Unknown with Jimmy Chin.' Jimmy and Chai are currently working on their first scripted feature for Netflix, 'Nyad,' about Diana Nyad’s swim from Cuba to Florida.

Natalie Hewit is an award-winning director and producer who has been making prime-time documentaries and series for major terrestrial and international broadcasters for over a decade. Her work has received widespread industry recognition and critical acclaim, including an RTS Award for Best Factual/Specialist Factual Programme for the BBC series 'Forensics: The Real CSI' - an observational documentary about real-life forensic investigators working with the British police and fire services. Additionally, she has been nominated for a BAFTA and RTS Award for Channel 4’s 'Surviving Covid' and 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, having spent three months filming 'Antarctica: Ice Station Rescue' at the Halley VI Research Station for the BBC’s prestigious 'Horizon' science series, and also led her to work with various high-profile talent, including Greta Thunberg and Louis Theroux. ENDURANCE(working title) marks her second National Geographic feature and second visit to Antarctica, where her documentation of the expedition secured the Reach the World’s Walter Cronkite Award for Exploration and Storytelling. Natalie is known for her passion for storytelling and 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 Guardian.

National Geographic Documentary Films previously released the Academy Award, BAFTA and seven-time Emmy Award-winning film 'Free Solo' and the Academy Award-nominated and Emmy-winning film 'The Cave.' In 2022, they released Oscar and BAFTA nominated 'Fire of Love,' two-time Sundance Award-winner 'The Territory,' critically acclaimed 'Retrograde' as well as the short film 'The Flagmakers,' all of which were shortlisted for a 2023 Academy Award. In 2021, they released BAFTA nominees 'The Rescue' and 'Becoming Cousteau,' and three-time Emmy Award winner 'The First Wave.' Other critically acclaimed films under the banner include 'Fauci'; 'Torn'; Emmy-nominated 'We Feed People' and 'Rebuilding Paradise' from Ron Howard; Sundance Audience Award winners 'Science Fair' and 'Sea of Shadows'; Emmy winners 'LA 92' and 'Jane,' both of which were included in the top 15 documentaries considered for an Academy Award in 2017; and Dupont Award winner 'Hell on Earth: The Fall of Syria and the Rise of Isis.'