All language subtitles for storyville.the.fire.within.2022.720p.webrip.x264-skyfire.[eng]

This film is in memory of Katia
and Maurice Krafft,

volcanologists from the Alsace
region in France.

Almost everything that we are going
to see is footage shot by them.

There's something so awe inspiring
in it, so never seen before

that attracted me as a film-maker.

They lost their lives together,
capturing the might of volcanoes.

This is their legacy.

The lives in the death of Katia
and Maurice are documented in films

and books, and this here
is not meant

to be another extensive biography.

What I'm trying to do here
is to celebrate the wonder

of their imagery.

MUSIC: "Requiem, Op. 48: Introit
et Kyrie"

This here is Katia Krafft
at a volcano in Iceland.

And this is her husband, Maurice.

Alsace, eastern France.

Both were born in villages not
far part of each other,

surrounded by vineyards with
a deep tradition

of unchanged peasant life.

They were roaming the entire globe
in pursuit of erupting volcanoes,

but they would always return
to the quiet landscape

of their origin.

Katia studied geochemistry at
Strasbourg University

with a goal to become
a volcanologist.

Shortly later, at the same
university, Maurice

began his studies in geology.

The bug of volcanoes had been in
him since he was seven

when his parents took him to the
Italian volcano, Stromboli.

Katia and Maurice met in Strasbourg
in 1966 and never left

each other ever after.

This is the place of that death.

The southern island of Kyushu
in Japan, right in the middle

of the volcano, Mount Unzen.

May 30th, 1991.

The Kraffts arrived there
on that day.

The mountain had shown signs
of a serious impending eruption.

When they arrived near the volcano
in a rented car,

a friend and colleague, Harry
Glicken, is with them.

Japanese reporters, photographers
and TV crews are already there.

This is the established
viewing point for the media.

Authorities have declared an
evacuation advisory area

some 4km distant
from the crater.

Its delineation and the movements
of the Kraffts would later lead

to lasting controversies.

They were blamed for luring
cameramen and journalists

into a dangerous position.

But these positions were taken days
before the Kraffts arrived.

Just find where...

The smoke is? The smoke is.

Here they make a first assessment
of the situation.

Small, so-called pyroclastic flows
have occurred recently.

About 5km. Yeah, yeah.

Small mountain, one, two metre.

The newspapers have reported
about the pyroclastic flows,

highly dangerous clouds of
superheated particles and gases.

Maurice is setting up his camera.

He still shoots 16
millimetres celluloid.

The local TV crew now captures
Katia, who is setting up

the tripod for her photo camera.

Maurice has problems with a battery
of his zoom.

The zoom.

Oh, yeah, it's perfect.

The mountain is quiet, nothing very
worth shooting right now.

Katia, Maurice and Glicken
seem to be at ease.

The Japanese media people are also
oblivious of the impending doom.

Whoever stayed here at this
outpost, cameramen, reporters

and taxi drivers would be dead
in a few days.

Helicopters can be heard
in the distance.

They monitor the crater.

Police is also present maintaining
the exclusion zone.

Now something important is coming.

I think we stay on the top
of this hill...

Maurice just hinted at moving
their position onto a hill

closer to the volcano.

Apparently this idea is taking
root right now.

If there is a road going there,
Katia agrees.

If you have a road, it's OK.

And here, suddenly, a small
pyroclastic flow

that will stop in the distance.

Once that you have these
pyroclastic flows coming

down and there is a lot to
understand, to take pictures

and then to study the pictures.

And also we like very much to come
in Japan because you have very good

observatories and very
good volcanologists.

So we can learn a lot with them.

At last, you can meet your planned
pyroclastic flow.

But that was a very small one?

Very small, yes, very small.

I hope to see bigger ones
than this one,

because this is very small,
really, yes.

This is one of the smallest
pyroclastic flows

I have seen in my life.

Well, yesterday,
it's pyroclastic flow,

it's very, very big one.

And that is the biggest one.

The cloud cover the foot
of the mountain.

Oh, yes, I would like to see this
kind of thing bigger.

Yes, sure.

But probably that whole part of the
dome collapsed at this moment.

So maybe it will need some...

..some hours or days to make
a new dome

that may collapse, part of the dome.

Sure.

This is exactly what would happen
a few days later, on June 3rd,

the day they would perish.

We hope always, but we cannot
be sure and we don't know nothing.

You have big blocks on the top
and they have to come down.

But when?

We know that Katia had much
deeper concerns

about the dangers than she would
admit on camera.

In fact, there was a crisis
in their relationship

because Katia wanted to leave for
the Philippines,

where the volcano Pinatubo was
about to erupt.

Maurice insisted he would stay
no matter what,

and Katia stayed with him.

I have seen so much eruptions
in 23 years

that, erm...

..even if I die tomorrow,
I don't care.

The Kraffts had a few narrow
escapes in their lives.

It was sheer luck.

In 1983, they chartered
a boat to approach

Una-Una volcano in Indonesia.

The volcano had erupted, leaving
destruction on this small island.

It does not look good.

Despite all science, volcanoes
are still unpredictable.

But Katia ventures out exploring.

Maurice, following her
with his camera.

SINGING

And then they come across some
livestock left behind

when the island was evacuated.

The cows, thirsty and starving,
seem to sense something.

The goats look uneasy as well.

LOUD THUNDER SOUND

Then there is a new eruption,
menacing enough

to make the Kraffts retreat.

But they don't know what's
coming very soon.

Seeing Katia here, taking her time,
and Maurice clearly still filming

from the shore, we feel like
hurrying them up.

They made it to safety.

There was no danger for them
any more.

And then this, the entire
island exploded.

Later, Katia writes in her diary...

"We would have been cooked
in a second."

Three years later, 1986,
the Kraffts were lucky again.

A helicopter took them
to the volcano,

St Augustine, in Alaska.

LOUD EXPLOSION

When both were near the crater
itself, a massive explosion

released a gigantic
pyroclastic flow.

Inside the cloud, temperatures can
reach way over

1,000 degrees Fahrenheit
and the cloud

can travel at speeds up to 400mph.

The strange thing is that what's
coming at you is silent.

The pyroclastic flow comes within
about 100 feet of the camera,

but Maurice does not flee.

He calmly keeps it in frame
until he runs out of film.

And Katia, who took this picture,
doesn't flee either.

It was a long way for the Kraffts
to become the figures

in their later films.

This here is Iceland, 1968.

They did not do camera
work themselves.

All the early footage was shot
by Roland Haas, who had formed

a company with Maurice.

Katia and Maurice's roles
were not defined yet.

Maurice, still boyish, looks
uncomfortable on camera.

Katia appears to be aimless,
just embellishing a shot.

Most of the time, she
disappears quickly.

1970, they were on the Italian
island of Vulcano.

The crater is inactive, except
for some escaping steam.

Their film looks like how movies
are made by tourists.

Everything is unspectacular.

Their means of transportation
are as primitive as it gets.

What is interesting is that we see
them doing scientific measurements.

Maurice, monitoring seismic
activities, and Katia measuring

chemical compositions of gases.

And here for the first time,
we see Maurice doing something

for the camera, yet to no avail.

Volcanoes have a natural attraction.

Tourists are climbing up the crater
as well.

A bold young lady makes it all
the way up to the rim

in high heels and a bikini.

We see them now arriving in their
base camp at the bottom.

Their life is documented
as if they were tourists.

The focus is on jam, bread
and Italian sausage.

Two years later, there is a shift.

Now on the Italian volcano,
Stromboli, they come

up with something that looks
like out of a carnival.

They brought along specially
made helmets.

Rather grotesque.

The idea behind it was protection
against chunks of flying rocks.

And now they stage it,
fake it for the camera.

They shoot several takes.

Watch the guy in the background...

I love his fake acting.

Katia seems to be
embarrassed, unconvinced.

These helmets make your
movements clumsy.

No serious volcanologist ever used
them in the Kraffts

abandoned the idea quickly.

Soon the Kraffts were able
to attract sponsors.

They made an extensive expedition
to Indonesia with a van and two

smaller vehicles, all supported
by the city of Mulhouse in Alsace.

Maurice began a phase
where he styled himself

after the world renowned underwater
film-maker, Jacques Cousteau,

wearing his trademark red woollen
cap and smoking a pipe.

The Kraffts apparently found
it cool to use pathetic

looking inflatable seats.

Katia's roll on camera was
still diminished.

Frequently, she would be
used for a scale.

She's hit by some drops
of hot water.

For the camera, they repeat it
several times, all fake.

Increasingly they
became film-makers.

From now on, we rarely ever
see them doing science.

They film others doing science.

Katia becomes a sound recordist
using state-of-the-art

microphones and tape recorders.

She also takes the role
of photographer.

Her pictures were published
in magazines and a book,

more than 400,000 pictures of hers
are in the archive...

Enough to fill several more volumes.

And here, like out of a fog,
Maurice's real persona

seems to emerge.

The mask comes off.

His face raw, grown up.

Just him.

And at the same time, as
if out of nowhere,

the images become grandiose.

A great film-maker is born.

This is Iceland 1973.

The small southern island of Heimaey
was surprised by a trench opening

and spewing red hot lava.

Maurice captures here an apocalypse
that we have never seen

before on film.

We're looking at Maurice
right at the eruption.

It seems that this is more than
just a volcanic event.

A fire within is taking
hold of him.

And it is certainly the same
with Katia.

She clearly expressed
it in an interview.

"I cannot live without volcanoes."

1980, Mount St Helens,
in the state of Washington.

In fact, this image
was taken years before.

The volcano still has
its pointed peak covered in snow.

The series of earthquakes and steam
venting episodes beginning in March

signalled a major event.

Seismic recordings went wild.

On May 18th, at 8:32 in the morning,
a magnitude 5.1 earthquake occurred.

This triggered the largest
landslide in recorded history

and an explosion.

The horizontal blast accelerated
to 670mph.

Within a radius of eight miles,
everything was obliterated

and up to a distance of 19 miles,

the shock wave
flattened every single tree.

Katia and Maurice, having acquired
a reputation to be the earliest

on the scene,
this time, came a few days late.

Approaching the zone of destruction,
everything looks normal.

The forests are still standing.

Then 20 miles away from the volcano,
first signs of devastation.

MAN VOCALISES

Mid-'80s, Hawaii.

The Kraffts, increasingly,
are attracted to the magnificence

and mystery of the inner Earth
flowing to the surface.

OPERATIC MUSIC PLAYS

They are no longer volcanologists -

they are artists who carry us,
the spectators, away in a realm

of strange beauty.

This is a vision that exists
only in dreams.

There is nothing
more that should be said.

We can only watch in awe.

OPERATIC MUSIC CONTINUES

There is a fascination
about the beauty of volcanoes,

but they have caused terrible
disasters.

This is the summit of
Nevado del Ruiz, in Colombia.

Its peak was covered with glaciers
and snow that had accumulated

for decades.

At 9:09pm on November 13,
1985, an eruption occurred.

It was only 3% of what
was ejected from Mount St Helens,

but the glowing lava
in pyroclastic flows

melted the ice almost instantly.

The white summit turned dark.

This was filmed by the Kraffts
a few days after the event.

And this is the flank of
the mountain where the water and mud

came down,
growing larger and larger.

So-called lahars formed.

RUMBLING

What we see here was filmed
by the Kraffts

years earlier, in the Alps of Italy.

It is completely unrelated to
Nevado del Ruiz,

but we can get an idea
of what came down in Colombia.

Water, eroded soil and
dislodged rocks, came sweeping down.

However, the lahar in Columbia
was 100 feet deep.

RUMBLING AND CRASHING

STEADY RUMBLING

It took more than an hour
until it reached the town of Armero,

some 30 miles away.

By then, the huge stream had widened
to a kilometre, sweeping

through the town.

Out of 29,000 inhabitants,
over 20,000 of them perished.

Only a few buildings on
higher ground remain standing.

This was the fourth deadliest
disaster in recorded history.

What we see here
used to be the centre of town.

The power of the flood
can be imagined by the size

of boulders it carried along.

There used to be a bridge here.

These here are lucky survivors.

Lucky because no-one was warned.

The volcano had given signals
so strong that later a volcanologist

said, "The volcano was screaming,
'I'm about to explode.'"

After the eruption,

there was more than an hour time
until the flood hit the town.

It would have taken most
of the inhabitants just 200 metres

to reach higher ground.

We have to imagine the water rose
higher than the bulldozers.

The level of the mud flow reached
almost to the top of the building

in the background,

and yet a safe elevation
is right behind.

Here we see the high mark
of the mud flow.

Days after the flood,
the soft mud was still treacherous.

It was 15 feet deep
and had swallowed up cattle

and humans, alike.

To cross it requires some ingenuity.

Over the remains of Armero
hovered the stench of carrion.

There was silence.

Here, we can see cows
that sank into the mud days ago.

They are irretrievable.

They will die here.

And then human remains.

In the magnitude of the tragedy,

they were still left
where they died.

The Kraffts wanted to see the source
of the disaster,

the summit of Nevado del Ruiz,
over 17,000 feet high.

This is where the flood
had come down.

The marks in the rock show
the gigantic magnitude of the lahar.

Peasants tried to reach
cut-off villages

that had suffered great loss of life
as well.

Bad visibility stopped Katia
and Maurice from climbing higher.

Turning away from the volcano,

they focused their attention
on the suffering of the survivors.

And this marked a fundamental shift
in their work.

They were shocked by the failure
to alert the local population.

In order to raise awareness
of the dangers of volcanoes,

they were looking for media
attention, and because of that,

they increasingly became
the daredevils.

And parallel to that, their gaze
became less scientific

and more and more humanistic.

MAN VOCALISES

The shift did not happen overnight,
as can be seen in footage

the Kraffts filmed in Indonesia
a year before the tragedy of Armero.

The volcanic eruption
had obscured the sky.

Day turned into night.

These traffic scenes were shot
at midday.

It took hours until
some light returned.

Dust was everywhere.

And the thought creeps up to me

that we are watching a scenario
of the future.

Could this pollution happen
without a volcano,

just caused by human behaviour?

STRING MUSIC PLAYS

MALE GROUP SINGING

El Chichon in the south of Mexico.

Every volcano the Kraffts filmed
had its own heartbreak -

destruction, dust and the agony
of a land left and forsaken by God.

Or, more banal,

are we here in a Spaghetti Western
turned nightmare?

WOMAN SINGS IN SPANISH

And then there is footage
the Kraffts created

that has no volcanoes in it.

They followed their curiosity.

They saw the world
no-one else had seen.

They left behind a mosaic
that is mysterious

and stunningly original.

FIREWORK LIGHTS, FIRES

MAN VOCALISES

WAVES CRASH

OPERATIC SINGING

Hawaii.

The Kraffts went there repeatedly.

This is where there is permanent
volcanic activity.

This is where fire meets water.

It appears to me the Kraffts
were shooting a whole film

about creation in the making.

They just did not have the time left
to edit it.

SINGING CONTINUES

WIND RUSHES

A good part of what we discover
in the archive of the Kraffts

is sheer hardship.

Many of the viewers of this will
probably be glad not to be there,

but I would give much if I could
have been their companion.

WOMAN SINGS IN SPANISH

This is what the Mexicans
would call "Pura Vida" -

life raw, intense and pure,
life with meaning, at its fullest.

We witness a travail of
their voyages, cars, horses,

and we pray the horses will make it.

SINGING CONTINUES

Back in Japan, Mount Unzen,
June 2nd, 1991.

The situation is unchanged -

no eruption, no big
pyroclastic flow.

The Kraffts and Harry Glicken
are holding their position,

musing about the small events
at the volcano.

Maybe the events they talk about,

you know, when they say
"20 pyroclastic flows per day",

maybe... They say it's because
of the seismicity,

so maybe they even count
the small ones, very small ones.

Maybe they don't really see them.

They're just small ones...
Yeah, just... Uh-huh.

Harry Glicken decides to make
better use of his time.

He leaves the Kraffts with their
cameras in order to study sediments

in the river flowing
from the volcano.

His story is curious.

He had unbelievable luck

when Mount St Helens exploded
some ten years prior.

He held an observation outpost
close to the volcano.

After working six days straight,

he had to leave for an interview
with his university.

His research adviser,
despite safety concerns,

volunteered to replace him
at his post.

This volunteer died in the cataclysm
of that day.

In the lottery of the universe,

Harry Glicken this time
would make his fatal move.

He rejoined the Kraffts
at their camera position

and thus died with them.

Up near the mountain,
boredom has taken hold.

Many of the camera people
are sleeping.

The volcano, only partially visible,
is just quiet.

Later, we will learn that
even this position -

just outside the exclusion zone -
is not safe.

The pyroclastic flow
will wipe it out as well.

Only some locals make it to safety.

And now what we see appears to be
from a new vantage point.

The Japanese cameraman
who shot this image

probably has joined the Kraffts
to move into an advanced position.

It was their last.

What remains of the Kraffts
are their amazing images.

OPERATIC SINGING

In looking into their archive,

we discover images
not only of volcanoes,

but landscapes that nobody has ever
filmed like them.

SINGING CONTINUES

Some of it has a quality of dreams.

Like in a biblical apocalypse,
stones are raining from the sky...

SINGING

..and rocks are giving up
their assigned nature

just to solidly sit there.

They tumble.

SINGING

And plants and creatures
and our whole planet

seem to be somewhere in outer space.

SINGING CONTINUES

Minutes away from the catastrophe,

Mount Unzen has released
a massive pyroclastic flow.

We have the radio contact of our
Japanese cameraman with his base.

RADIO CHATTER

They order him to evacuate at once.

He's afraid but still takes time
to wipe his lens.

MAN SPEAKS IN JAPANESE

Only now he flees.

And while he flees,
he still keeps filming.

SPEAKING IN DISTANCE

EXPLOSION, RUMBLING

And only moments later, the end -

Mount Unzen explodes,

a gigantic pyroclastic flow
comes rushing down.

No-one in its path will survive.

OPERATIC SINGING

The cameraman who fled reported that
the Kraffts had been nearby.

We thought we should revisit
his footage.

And here, wasn't there something?

Let's look at it again.

Now zoom in.

There is somebody.

There are some figures.

Could that be the Kraffts
and Glicken?

The probability is high.

Does this here capture
the very last moment of the Kraffts?

We do know, from the position
their bodies were found,

they were the closest
to the volcano.

There were survivors, but only
those who were barely touched

by the edges of the flow.

JAPANESE RADIO CHATTER

The remains of Katia and Maurice
were cremated in Japan,

and their ashes are buried
here together

in the grave of Katia's family.

They're back now in Alsace,
their home.

In their lives together,
they walked along a precipice.

In their love, they became one.

This shot was made by Maurice
walking with a camera,

the abyss too close.

Katia must have held him
so he wouldn't fall.

OPERATIC SINGING

Because of this unity
and this togetherness,

they were able to descend into
the inferno

and wrestle an image from
the very claws of the devil.

And that is why I wanted
to make this film for them.

SINGING CONTINUES