The Volcano: Rescue from Whakaari

Forty-seven people were on Whakaari aka “White Island”, a volcanic isle in north-eastern New Zealand, when it erupted on 9 December 2019. Twenty-two did not survive the event. This feature-length documentary painstakingly knits together smartphone footage taken by the tourists themselves, in addition to more traditional archive video and interviews, to create a minute-by-minute account of the disaster. Often, it captures quick decisions that saved lives; before that, it puts the island and its visitors into context to complete a full picture of an extraordinary, tragic day.