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Survivor Stories

Short Film (Full Length) – 1998

The 1931 Napier Earthquake was one of the most devastating natural disasters in Aotearoa New Zealand's history, with 256 deaths and a city left in ruins. In this talking heads documentary made for MTG Hawke's Bay, five survivors  children and teenagers at the time  give firsthand accounts of the monumental day and its aftermath. Director/producer Gaylene Preston includes rousing sound design amongst the interviews, giving a sense of how an earthquake of that magnitude would sound. Preston would later expand upon the topic of the Napier quake in her Qantas-nominated doco Earthquake! 

The city was about to blow up, literally.
– Napier local Audrey McKelvie (née Hurst) on the fires that followed the Napier earthquake