A minute-by-minute account of tourists caught in a tragic volcanic eruption while sightseeing on an island off New Zealand in 2019. Video / Netflix
By Whakatane Beacon
Heartrending testimony from survivors and family members and footage of the 2019 eruption are shared in Volcano: Rescue from Whakaari, a gripping documentary that will be released on Netflix on Friday.
Forty-seven people were on the island when the volcano erupted at 2.11pm on December 9. Twenty-two of those people died from injuries sustained in the eruption.
A preview screening of the documentary was held in Whakatane last week – attended by those connected to the eruption, including rescuers and survivors, and the filmmakers.
Directed by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Rory Kennedy, she said filmmakers felt it was important to come back and share it with people in person in Whakatāne.
“We felt it was a memorable screening and something quite powerful to us to be in the room with people as they were watching it … going through this experience with the community, it is something that will stay with us a good long time.
“Everyone who came up to me, it was very emotional, but they had a very positive take on the film,” she said.
The documentary features several Eastern Bay people who were connected to the event, including the pilots who rescued 12 people off the island, those who were on the island and survived, or family members who lost loved ones.
Big names were involved in the making of the film – Ron Howard and Leonardo DiCaprio are executive producers.
Dallas Rexer is one of the two writers of the Netflix documentary Volcano: Rescue from Whakaari. Photo / Supplied
Kennedy said DiCaprio and Howard’s film companies had the rights to a story that appeared in Outside magazine, written by Alex Perry: The True Story of the White Island Eruption.
“They were interested in making a documentary about it and approached me … I had not been aware of the eruption, and I read the article with great interest. I was really moved by the stories of the people who were on the island and what they went through and what they did to survive and how they looked after each other.
And the story of the rescuers coming in on the helicopters, and I felt like it was an important story and one that I was very interested in telling, said Kennedy.
Kennedy said building trust was one of the biggest challenges they faced as filmmakers
“In addition to having experienced extraordinary trauma, there was also a lot of bad experiences with the media and we were up against that, but as Dallas said, we really wanted to give this project a lot of time to build those relationships and build that trust.
Tim Barrow tells how he flew out to the Whakaari to rescue survivors after the eruption in 2019. Photo / Supplied
“As somebody who retells these stories where there is so much trauma, I feel a responsibility in that and I don’t ask people to do that lightly because I know that just in the telling of these things it can be traumatic and triggering.”
She said working with Netflix, they always ensured that people had options of psychological support if they needed it after or during the interviews. The documentary allows those connected to the eruption to tell the story.
“I think that this is a very powerful story and so I think in our approach I think we tried our best to get out of the way of it and kind of let it tell itself,” Kennedy said.
“We really rely on firsthand accounts … hearing from people who were on the frontline who can walk us through what happened. It is very much a minute-by-minute account and there are many people who watched the film who felt they were on the edge of their seats about what was going to happen next.
“We wanted audiences to understand what it was like, as best as you can without actually being there, to go through the experiences that these folks had.”
Kennedy also acknowledged the Beacon’s role in the documentary.
“I think you did a great job covering it and we appreciated you guys from the very beginning being involved in this project.”
Dallas Rexer is one of the two writers of the documentary. She said they felt moved to look out at the room full of people.
“Everybody took a leap of faith in one way or another to get involved in this project and we felt the responsibility of making sure that the film was factually accurate, fair, and balanced, and also represented their story.
“The response that we got I think affirmed that for all of us that we had delivered on what we had promised, which means a lot.”
Rexer said it took them about two years to complete the film.
“We thought it was important to be here as much as possible and spend a lot of time getting to know the community and getting to know and build trust with all the individuals who experienced the event.
“It took a long time and it should take a long time because it was an important story to make sure we got it right and to do that we really needed to build those relationships,” she said.
