Behind the scenes: making a film about La Soufriére

You can imagine my surprise when I was the first person on a long list not too busy to head out to St Vincent to make a film about La Soufrière…! Having worked on St Vincent before, I sort of knew what to expect – volcanic paradise.

The plan was to make a series of short films about the volcano, describing its recent eruptions, how people responded to eruptions in the past, and what might happen at the volcano in the future. We didn’t want to just make a documentary, or do something just for the sake of ‘outreach’ – we wanted to be able to tell the story of living alongside a volcano through the experiences of those that are.

La Soufrière rising into the clouds, as seen from above the town of Chateaubelair.

For the two volcanologists, Richie Robertson (Seismic Research Centre, UWI) and I – filming in the field with a professional company was a totally new experience. Similarly, the crew from Lambda Films had yet to test their skills in either the tropics or on an active volcano.

La Soufrière is an extraordinary volcano, which dominates the northern third of St Vincent. Its lush green slopes show little sign of its destructive past; the products of large eruptions in 1979 and 1902 barely visible to the untrained eye. This is a common problem to encounter on low altitude volcanoes in the tropics, as the vegetation very quickly obscures where pyroclastic density currents have burnt the landscape. Yet, with a keen eye and, of course, knowing where to look, you can uncover the signs of the past. Our first filming location with Richie was at a sugar plantation, destroyed by the 1902 eruption. Buildings covered in ash and flow deposits up to their roof, only the top of a window and the giant water wheel are still visible. Much industry like this, situated on the volcano’s slopes was damaged to such an extent in 1902, that many plantations and farms never recovered. The same happened in 1979, and although a smaller eruption, the long-term effects were felt by many.

Richie describing the societal effects of past eruptions at a destroyed sugar mill.

We interviewed many people who had lived through the 1979 eruption, and they recounted their experiences for us. It’s really important for memories of past eruptions to be recorded and passed down between generations and shared with communities elsewhere in the world. Although all volcanoes are different, erupting into a vast range of social and economical contexts, many of the struggles and challenges of living with them are shared. With this series of films, we hope to show some of these challenges and how people adapted.

For a researcher who is used to interviewing or conducting focus groups, doing this from behind a camera whilst trying to get responses that would contain sound-bites for a film, was very different! I normally have a very conversational interviewing style, but the camera can inhibit this a little. However, the limitations of using a video camera became insignificant when reviewing the footage. Interviews, descriptions of past events and, most importantly, the people themselves, came to life on screen. We are sure that the footage we collected will be a great legacy for people on St Vincent.

The team interviewing a lady about the 1979 eruption, with La Soufrière in the background.

As well as the interviews, the team hiked up the volcano, to film its crater and the deposits on the flanks. I had a brilliant idea to climb it at 3am – so that we could film sunrise over Georgetown, an at risk town on the eastern flanks. This ‘romantic sunrise trek’, on offer at many volcanoes worldwide, was a total fail – we could only see 10m in front of us…! Nevertheless, at the top of the volcano, any notion of vegetated slopes or a hidden past is literally blown away when you reach the rim of the crater and stare down inside. The clouds swirl and part… three hundred meters below, the crater floor expands into the distance, interrupted by a lava dome, the scale of which is indeterminable to your eyes, is then encircled by the wall on other side – over 1.5km away. A local guide, Delroy Browne, once told me that his favourite thing about climbing La Soufrière is to see the look on people’s faces when they look into it. He isn’t wrong!!

The crater of La Soufrière, with the lava dome from 1979 in the centre.

To get into the crater to do our filming, we had to descend the very steep walls, with a thick rope to stop you from sliding down (probably a long way) if you were to lose your footing. The film crew with their kit, me with their water and tripod, and Richie survived the descent unscathed, and set about a day filming down there.

The team descending the crater walls.

The crater is so important, both physically and symbolically. The exposures of rock in the walls, showing old lava flows and explosive eruptions, tell us a story about the volcano, which is so difficult to see anywhere else. For the people of the island, the crater is a foreboding location, the source of rumor, intrigue and potential devastation. Standing in it, swirling banks of clouds often obscure the walls, wafts of sulphurous gasses coming from the many fumaroles heighten the sense of excitement. We of course unleashed both of the drones that we brought with us to get some aerial shots. Following a good morning filming, including a breakfast of hotdogs – cooked in the dome’s gas vent, we climbed back out and made our way back down.

Shot from the volcanocopter of Lamba Film’s drone filming Richie Robertson in the crater

Despite having been to St Vincent before, or indeed being fortunate enough to work on many incredible volcanoes, the experience of making a film about one is something that I, and I imagine the rest of the team, will never forget. Quite what makes St Vincent feel so special to me, I don’t know.Whether it was incredible street-cooked jerked bbq food, an extraordinary volcano, some of the friendliest people you can find, a rich history or a volcanically threatened future – it has to be near the top of a volcanologist’s bucket-list for fieldwork.
Risk communication can be a tough task, in many cases it is a balancing act between communicating the right message to get people interested/concerned enough about a hazard so that they think about it and plan for it, whilst not overreacting to it. Undoubtedly, St Vincent will experience eruptions from La Soufriére in the future that will threaten communities and ways of life, but we hope that making and showing films like this can help to strengthen resilience there by learning from the past, and telling that story through the eyes of those that lived through it.

(This post was originally written for the London Volcano blog)