Director's long day's journey into ice

'Abandoned' tracks a failed expedition

Gino Del Guerico, of South Easton, accompanied a small team of adventurers who followed the trail of Lieutenant Adolphus W. Greely's ill-fated exploration of the Arctic. (Simon Reeves)

Certain names stand out in the annals of Arctic exploration, like Sir John Franklin, the English naval officer, or the Norwegian Roald Amundsen. One of them is not Lieutenant Adolphus W. Greely, an American from Newburyport, though a documentary produced and directed by South Easton filmmaker Gino Del Guercio suggests he led the most ambitious (and horrendous) Arctic exploration in United States history. It started as a scientific research venture in 1881 with a ragtag group of 24 men, and ended three years later with six emaciated men and stories of starvation, attempted mutiny, an execution, and rumors of cannibalism.

In the summer of 2004, Del Guercio - an Emmy award-winning filmmaker specializing in science and history - accompanied a small team of adventurers, including Greely's 21-year-old great-great-grandson, James Shedd, to the Arctic as they retraced part of the voyage by kayak. It wasn't without its own trauma: His cameraman came within an inch of his life when he was crushed by a traveling ice floe (he recovered). Luckily, the Greely descendent grabbed the camera and finished shooting much of the film, "Abandoned in the Arctic," which will be screened Saturday at the Peabody Essex Museum's Polar Film Festival.

Q. What did you think when you were asked to direct a film about the Arctic?

A. I jumped at the idea. I'd always dreamed of traveling up north. Everyone hears about the Antarctic, even though we live much closer to the Arctic.

Q. What did you know about Adolphus Greely?

A. I'd never heard of Greely. I'm always amazed at how few people know that name. I think it's because after he came back there were accusations of cannibalism and the federal government tried to suppress the story.

Q. What's your take on the cannibalism?

A. It's pretty clear there was cannibalism and it is certainly justifiable. These people were dead. There was no food. The men were on the verge of death due to starvation. Greely denied it and all the people who survived denied they knew anything about cannibalism. But even so, Greely was a little bit obscure about his denials. He basically said, "I know of no law of God or man that has been violated." It's possible he did not know; it may have taken place out of his sight.

Q. Because you had access to Greely's diaries and even to some of his own artifacts, did the story of this distant explorer seem as though it wasn't all that distant?

A. One of the high points of the film is the ending where the expedition organizer pulls out Greely's prayer book and reads a prayer from the same book Greely read at the very same spot as he was burying his men. Everyone who was there was blown away by the experience. We didn't know he had the book: He kept it a secret from everybody.

Q. Why should anyone care, today, about this explorer?

A. I think he exhibited an amazing ability to survive and to lead men in times of severe physical and emotional stress. I think this is about men pushing themselves to the outermost limits. The greatness of Greely was that he got 24 men 250 miles south over one of the most treacherous stretches of water and held them together for eight months with only one month's supply of food, and without shelter. It says something about the human spirit.

Q. How did it feel to spend seven weeks in the Arctic?

A. It was so desolate. It was a huge culture shock for me to come back to Boston. I hadn't seen night for seven weeks. At home we become used to the hustle and bustle and craziness of the city and up there you don't even hear an airplane. There are no trees so there isn't even the sound of wind blowing through them. I realized that we live in such an artificial environment where everything is taken care of for us: Food is easily available. Every winter now, I think about Greely and his men.

Q. What went through your mind when your cameraman was injured?

A. My first thoughts were I was concerned for his safety. We all were. After that, I was concerned for the expedition itself and whether this thing we had planned for so many months was going to end abruptly. Once I knew he was safe and the trip was going to continue, I thought, "Boy, is this great for the film! This is going to be an amazing dramatic moment in the film." And it is.