Rory Kennedy on ‘THE VOLCANO: Rescue from Whakaari’ and Honoring Survivor Stories

What begins as a once-in-a-lifetime vacation experience turns into a nightmare for a group of 47 unsuspecting tourists and travel guides who become trapped after a volcanic eruption off the coast of New Zealand. With government aid slow to respond due to dangerous conditions, the survivors are forced to rely on each other and a small group of first responders for help. With the use of first-hand accounts and footage mostly captured on cell phones, THE VOLCANO: Rescue from Whakaari recounts this harrowing natural disaster that ultimately claimed 22 lives.

Rory Kennedy has pieced together a documentary that is both riveting and heartfelt. THE VOLCANO: Rescue from Whakaari is an inspirational look at the tenacity of the human spirit when we come face to face with Mother Nature’s wrath.

Awards Daily: THE VOLCANO: Rescue from Whakaari is absolutely riveting; how did you find your way to it? 

Rory Kennedy: Well, I would say it found its way to me. We were approached by Appian Way, Leonardo DiCaprio’s company, as well as Ron Howard and Brian Grazer’s Imagine Entertainment; they had the rights to an article that was written by Alex Perry, from Outside Magazine, where he had documented what happened the day of the eruption. They sent that article to us to see if we thought it lent itself to a documentary and if I would be interested in directing it. I read the article along with my husband, Mark Bailey, with great interest and was amazed that we hadn’t heard this story—the drama of what happened and just how crazy it is to be on a remote island and on vacation and that island erupting. All of these people were so far away from everything, and I was particularly moved by how they really had to look to each other to survive. I think those stories of the individuals turning around, risking their own lives, and helping others really moved me to feel like this could be something bigger and more important than a disaster film. This is an elevated story in that sense. And part inspirational. 

AD: With any documentary, and especially with this one, there are many different ways that you can tell this story. You chose to focus on the survivors and the personal stories rather than the science. Was that always your intention?

RK: I always want my films to land in the same way that I respond to a story. So when I read that article, I found it riveting; what’s going to happen next? These people go out on the boat; they go 45 kilometers off the mainland; they’re out there. I wanted to know who these people were. And then this thing erupts. They have to figure out what to do and how to survive. And then, of course, the heroic helicopter pilots coming in on their own and doing what they could to save people. My feeling in reading the article was, what will happen next, and what will happen to these people I now care about? So, I ultimately felt like that was the story I wanted to tell and the experience I wanted audiences to have.

AD: Tell me about your conversations with the survivors and building enough trust for them to be able to then talk to you about their trauma. Was there any hesitation, or were there any roadblocks to building those relationships?

RK: I think many people who survived this had the experience of, in the immediate aftermath, where the press and media dropped into the small town of Whakaari. What I heard from many people is that these reporters came in, they wanted a story, they knew the story they wanted, and then they took that story from them and left.

And there was a feeling of being taken advantage of and people not caring about what happened to them. As a result, there was a lot of skepticism of us regarding our intentions, how long we were going to be around, and how much we were going to get the story right.

I’m grateful to Netflix for giving us some runway to tell this story and a good amount of time to develop those relationships and build that trust. It was during Covid, and New Zealand was largely shut down during this phase, but we were able to spend a good amount of time there and build up those relationships and trust. In the making of the film, it was important to us to be enormously respectful of the people who had gone through this experience. But also in how the film came out in the world. And so again, I’m grateful to Netflix because we were able to return to Whakaari, to the small town, and do a private screening of the film with the people who had survived it, and be able to share the film with them first before taking it out into the world.

We were very pleased with the reception of the film. It was a very emotional screening, as you can imagine. The response was extremely positive and has been ever since. I’m very happy about how the film was received, mostly by the people who were in it.

AD: So much of the documentary relies on video and images that were captured by the survivors. How did you piece that together and manage the visualization of the disaster? 

RK: Well, the visual storytelling was a priority for me from day one as soon as I signed on to this. And Netflix came in as our partner, so as we were reaching out to potential interviewees, we were also always asking the question, do you have any photos? Do you have any footage? Are there any videos on your iPhone? Do you know anybody who has them? We had a full-time archive producer whose job was gathering that material, and they were on from the very beginning of the project. And we were happy to be able to share not only visuals that had been seen somewhat before but also to find a treasure trove of new material that nobody had ever seen, and audio as well. That was quite powerful. And I think, as a result, audiences talk about feeling like they were on the edge of their seat watching this; what’s going to happen next? And really feeling like you’re on the ground with these people, and you’re experiencing it from their perspective. I was so happy with how well the film has done on Netflix and that it had been number one in the U.S. and across the world during the holiday week. I think it just really struck a chord with people.

AD: I’m so happy to hear that the people of Whakaari are happy with the documentary. What do you hope the main takeaway is for people watching at home?

RK: There are a lot of emotionally very powerful moments in the film, but at the end of the day, what rises beyond the story itself is this idea that I think a lot of people around the world right now are experiencing—these events in nature that are overwhelming us and a lot of them are the result of climate change. This eruption itself is not related to climate change. But I think that there’s this kind of question of what happens in the face of these events, whether it’s tornadoes or hurricanes or droughts, or flooding, or an earthquake. What happens to people in those circumstances? And I think it was really heartwarming for me to see the degree to which people were able to look out and after each other and to protect each other and to save each other when they were in this crisis and in the aftermath of this horrific event. They were isolated; the government didn’t show up, and nobody was able to really show up for them, so they really had to look out for each other, and largely, they did. That’s the message of the film.

AD: Is there a moment or a feeling that you’re taking from this project on to the next thing you’ll be working on?

RK: I remember when we locked the picture, and the creative team watched the film for the last time to give notes before it was sealed in the box and sent out and off to Netflix with no more changes. I think we were all impacted by the film even though we’d seen it a million times. And we had a discussion about, at a point in the film, do you get emotional? All five of us had different moments where the film was heart-wrenching for us. It’s a little bit different in terms of which storyline kind of really takes you to this place that is a bit gutting. Which I think says something about the film itself and the journey that audiences go on. 

It’s a reminder to always try my best to get to the truth of people’s stories and tell them as honestly as I can. Understanding there are many truths, but I do think that it was really affirming to me to feel that everybody in the film felt like we got it right. And have audiences all over the world be able to relate. I think that happens when you really get to the bottom of people’s experiences and have the time to tell them in an honest and truthful way.