Into the Inferno

We are here in the Vanuatu Archipelago,

a cluster of volcanic islands in the Pacific,

about 1,000 miles east of northern Australia.

Below, the village of Endu on the island of Ambrym.

A year ago, most of it was destroyed by a tropical storm

of phenomenal force.

But the village also has to endure to the periodic fallout

of volcanic eruptions.

Punctuated by catastrophes,

time does not seem to have found a grip on the community.

We met Chief Mael Moses,

here with members of his large family.

This is Clive Oppenheimer,

a volcanologist from Cambridge University,

who brought us to this place.

Chief Mael Moses, you're the head of this beautiful village of Endu,

just a few kilometers from the volcano crater.

You visited the crater and looked yourself into the inferno,

- into the raging fire. - Yeah.

How did you feel when you went there?

Uh...

I felt very frightened to look at the fire.

Secondly, I feel that I was not in the island of Ambrym.

I thought I was somewhere else.

And, uh... the other thing,

I feel that-- how powerful that fire is.

Do spirits live in the fire?

That's how we believe, that spirits are in the fire.

The fire is burning through that spirit.

We believe that the fire is burning through that spirit.

I read that there was a big eruption in 1968,

and that there were rituals performed to stop the eruption.

And then tourists were not allowed for three years afterwards

to visit the crater

because it was seen that somehow the tourists had started the eruption.

Is that...?

Well, we believe that because we thought that the spirits

that are in the volcano...

if they look at you, they don't know who is this. Okay?

But if they look at one of us, they know that, uh,

because we are more or less related to the volcano,

then they will just be quiet.

Sometimes we say that tourists won't go up there. Okay?

Because you are foreigners to that spirit, the volcano.

Once I dreamt about volcano, I saw people in that fire.

People and women and men.

They're cooking their food in there.

So, it makes me believe that there is somebody who is--

their spirits are there.

The molten rock, is that part of the spirit?

The lava expresses the anger of the devil

who are living in that fire, volcano.

Do the ancestors, then, live under the volcano?

Yes, we believe that anybody who dies here goes to the volcano,

and that volcano has become their village,

where you can talk to them and they can talk to us.

- Can you talk to the volcano? - I'm not, because, you know,

I'm not related to the volcano.

But one of my brothers is. He was talking to the volcano.

His father-- His father, when he goes up to the volcano,

and if he wants to smoke, he just calls out

and the fire will come down, and take the fire

and light his cigarette or pipe or something like that.

And if you brother talks to the volcano,

is he allowed to tell you what the volcano has said,

- or is it just a secret? - No, it's a secret for him. Yes.

- Do you try and get the secret out of him? - I've got some.

But Chief Mael Moses is worried

about the loss of their ancient culture.

He asked us to follow him to a ritual site in the jungle.

Once upon a time, our people were cannibal.

They see somebody, and they would like to attack him

and kill him so that they use it for meat.

And this how they demonstrate it.

Many people here have lost the dance.

They have lost the idea of dancing.

Yes.

The custom dance that you're going to see this afternoon,

just my family will perform the dance.

This a happier dance. The happiest dance.

After we have gone through a long suffering,

then we are happy to go back and dance

and to express ourselves.

I studied here ten years ago with some colleagues,

scientists from Vanuatu.

For you, is it strange to imagine that someone would come here to work,

to study how the volcano works, how it erupts?

I'm very surprised to hear that you people are very interested

in the volcano. Yeah.

I always ask myself,

"Why do these people want to do with that fire?"

Okay?

When looking at this, going in the helicopter yesterday,

I was wondering, "Why this man is going--

wanting to do with that volcano, eh?"

- -

Yes, I don't know why you are so interested in volcano.

In a way, this film started for me ten years ago in Antarctica.

I was doing a film about scientists on this continent

which took me to Mount Erebus, an active volcano,

one of the three in the world

where you can look straight into the magma of the inner earth.

Magma is the heated molten rock from which lava can be extruded.

It was on Erebus, 12,500 feet above sea level,

that I met a strange and wonderful tribe of volcanologists,

some of them overcome by altitude sickness.

This close to the boiling magma, which frequently explodes,

we were briefed on the etiquette of how to deal with the stuff.

One very important thing to keep in mind

when you're on the crater

is that the lava lake could explode at any time.

If it does, it's vital to keep your attention

faced toward the lava lake

and watch for bombs that are tracking up into the air,

and try to pick out the ones that might be coming toward you

and step out of the way.

The last thing you want to do is turn away from the crater

or run or crouch down.

Keep your attention toward the lava lake, look up,

and move out of the way.

What really impressed me was seeing these scientists

toiling up the side of the volcano with such heavy loads.

The temperature on this particular morning

was minus-25 degrees Fahrenheit.

My face is frozen.

One of them stood out.

Despite having that fantastic lava lake down there,

with all that energy,

we still have to bring old petrol generators up to the crater rim.

Man vs. machine, chapter 53.

Professor Clive Oppenheimer on Erebus.

Hands in pockets.

Waiting for it to start spontaneously.

I think he'll be waiting a long time.

Have you ever seen two men kiss on the top of Erebus before?

I like working with Harry.

Is that all right? Thank you.

It was easy to start a friendship with him.

On one of our first days together,

he insisted upon training his own camera on me.

Let's turn it off, yeah? Okay?

Do you see them only in destructive terms, volcanoes?

No, I... I do not. Uh...

Something different. It's good that they are there.

And the soil we are walking upon, uh, is not permanent.

There's no permanence to what we are doing...

no permanence to the efforts of human being,

no permanence to art, no permanence to science.

There is something of a crust that is somehow moving,

and it makes me fond of the volcano to know that our life,

human life, or animals,

can only live and survive

because the volcanoes created the atmosphere that we need.

Do you have a sense of the different kinds of volcanoes and different eruptions?

I know you filmed on La Soufrière de Guadeloupe many years ago,

which is a very--

Well, do you sense differences in the activity here with...?

Yeah, La Soufrière was very volatile.

It was all the way back in 1976

when I first filmed a volcano.

This was on the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe.

The mountain was expected to explode at any moment,

and 70,000 people were rapidly evacuated.

The fear was intense

because of the memory of an event that took on apocalyptic proportions.

It was known that, in 1902,

on the neighboring island of Martinique, Mount Pelée exploded.

The signals that La Soufrière issued in Guadeloupe

were almost identical to what had happened.

It was measured in 1902.

So, everybody was afraid it would explode,

and it would explode with very, very massive force,

many times an atomic bomb, Hiroshima-size.

So, I was not interested in the volcano.

I was interested in one single man who refused to be evacuated.

Uh-huh.

A different attitude towards death.

75 people-- 75,000 people being evacuated,

and he stayed on.

I actually found him-- I find him sleeping.

I find him sleeping. I had to wake him up on camera.

And what was wonderful-- he was very philosophical.

A very poor black farmer.

And I sensed that, after a while,

he didn't feel so comfortable with us anymore,

and he sat up and started to tie his worn-out tennis shoe.

And then, all of a sudden, he sings a song against the camera,

and I knew that was that. So, go away, we'd better get out.

We met in Antarctica

during the shoot of Encounters at the End of the World,

and I knew a little bit about you. I'd seen some of your movies

when I was a youngster,

and I knew something of your reputation.

And we, in our field team,