Netflix’s ‘Post-Shock: Everest and the Nepal Earthquake’ Is Much More Than Just a Mountain

”]“renderIntial”: true, “wordCount”: 350}”>

Two weeks ago, I turned on Netflix, and a pre-show of a new post-traumatic documentary series: Everest and the Nepal Earthquake flashed across the screen. The excerpt showed a mountain climber standing precariously on a rickety ladder in the Khumbu Ice Slope, and as a consumer of all things Everest, I immediately clicked through the film’s three episodes. As the story unfolded, I saw that there was a balancing act of a different nature in the film. While Aftershock is marketed as the latest documentary on Everest, the film attempts to tell a much bigger story than the world’s highest peak.

The aftershocks document the horror and devastation caused by the April 2015 earthquake in Nepal that left nearly 9,000 people dead and an estimated 2.5 million homeless. It addresses the question of what happens when millions of people are immediately put into survival situations – are they searching for each other or searching for themselves? Mount Everest, and the avalanche that destroyed the base camp, is of course a chapter in this story. But the aftershock also transports viewers to the dilapidated buildings in downtown Kathmandu, and tall in devastated villages on the other side of the country, to tell a broader story of the disaster.

I recently spoke to British Post Trauma director Olly Lambert, and he said that he and the film’s producers are constantly weighing how much attention should be given to Everest climbers, and how much should be given to other stories. “Literally, from day one of production, the question we asked was how do we make sure that this huge catastrophe happening in the Indian subcontinent was not framed as a load of white people gossiping about their bad vacation,” says Lambert. “You could make an entire movie about the discussions we had about the title alone.”

Some of the film’s best scenes appear in Kathmandu. (Photo: Courtesy of Netflix)

It is of course impossible to cover a disaster of this scale and scope in one film. The directors and producers tackle this lofty goal by weaving three separate survival stories, set in three different locations, all containing eerily similar elements of horror, sadness, and controversy. The title card notes that one of these stories focuses on climbers and guides preparing to ascend Mount Everest when the earthquake strikes the morning of April 25, 2015. Another story takes place in the remote Langtang Valley, a busy destination for hikers, and centers around three Israeli hikers and the villagers they meet along the way. . The third (and most tearful) story takes place in a hotel in Kathmandu, run by a reformed (and self-described) Nepalese gangster, his wife, and children.

These stories are told through interviews with people who survived, and with amazing footage captured at each location. There is also a dramatic reenactment to reenact the moments lost in time.

The team spoke to a Nepalese researcher who explained to them how the 22 deaths at Base Camp generated nearly 50 percent of all international headlines about the earthquake itself, and how this disparity in storytelling obscured the true scale and scope of the disaster. “As filmmakers, we didn’t want to fall into the same trap,” says Lambert. “We’ve always been grappling with how to balance Everest with what’s going on elsewhere.”

But Lambert and others also knew that the audience’s fascination with Everest would likely absorb viewers who might skip a movie about Nepalese struggling to survive. There was a need to “get vagabond seats,” says Lambert, which was also on the horizon.

Western hikers are fighting for survival in the new Netflix movie. (Photo: Courtesy of Netflix)

Plus, there’s another practical reason why the Everest story matters: actual footage of the earthquake. Multiple documentaries at Base Camp filmed the avalanche and its aftermath with high-resolution cameras. The film’s producers had an abundance of footage to choose from, and the clips they included show the helplessness that everyone at Base Camp felt while watching the plume of wrecks speed towards them. Rains of ice and rocks devastated the camp, killing 22 people, the highest death toll in a single event in the history of the Everest expeditions.

A series of poignant scenes shows kiwi climber Dave McKinley in the moments after the avalanche, as he used wireless climbers higher at Base Camp to try to assess the damage. “It just so happened that in the minutes after the earthquake, a documentary photographer captured an incredibly high-quality 4K camera. He had an audio recorder as well, and they just filmed the scene,” says Lambert. “You actually see it in Dave’s eyes when he realizes what’s going on. He takes a deep breath, says ‘OK, Roger,’ and then starts to move. If I were trying to organize it, I couldn’t have pictured it better.”

The mountain has plenty of shots from the summit. (Photo: Courtesy of Netflix)

Lambert and his crew spent nearly a year trying to decide on the other two story lines to follow. They worked with Nepalese producers to compile a list of novels to follow, then narrowed it down based on a variety of factors, including access to video footage or photography. Lambert says he wanted to follow a story from the epicenter in Gorkha district, but no footage survived the drama. Instead, the crew was drawn to the stories coming from the Langtang Valley and the devastation surrounding Langtang Village. Lambert says most mainstream media have overlooked the drama about Israeli hikers, but rumors spread within the community about the trio of strangers and how they nearly caused an international accident. (Outside covered what happened in the Langtang Valley in a 2015 feature.)

Israeli hikers came to Langtang village – a town where they had only slept a few nights before – and discovered that a rockslide had buried the city’s buildings and killed most of its residents. I won’t spoil what’s going on, but let’s just say the three hikers made a terrible mistake that puts them in a life-and-death struggle with the city’s survivors. “We tracked down the main characters from what happened that day, and they were all ready to talk about it,” says Lambert. “A group of tourists did what was clearly seen as a transgression, and they paid for it. It seems to echo a lot of the tensions that were happening on Everest at the same time.”

In the Kathmandu story, efforts to rescue survivors buried under rubble become a race against time, as well as a social and political battle between foreign rescue crews and those from Nepal.

In the end, this is a movie about people working in a survival situation. (Photo: Courtesy of Netflix)

In my opinion, this project could have given up any reference to Mount Everest and still be a compelling watch. As a viewer, I tried to put myself in everyone’s shoes to ask myself how I would have reacted amid such an extreme situation. Would I have been altruistic, or would I have sought some advantage in a survival or death scenario? Ultimately, Lambert says, the dynamism is what the movie is about — not just an avalanche in the Himalayas.

“Yes, the series we made is about an earthquake,” he says. “But it really has to do with these people, how they were changed, how they were revealed through their actions and behaviors. Something came out inside of them.”

What Are The Main Benefits Of Comparing Car Insurance Quotes Online

LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / June 24, 2020, / Compare-autoinsurance.Org has launched a new blog post that presents the main benefits of comparing multiple car insurance quotes. For more info and free online quotes, please visit https://compare-autoinsurance.Org/the-advantages-of-comparing-prices-with-car-insurance-quotes-online/ The modern society has numerous technological advantages. One important advantage is the speed at which information is sent and received. With the help of the internet, the shopping habits of many persons have drastically changed. The car insurance industry hasn't remained untouched by these changes. On the internet, drivers can compare insurance prices and find out which sellers have the best offers. View photos The advantages of comparing online car insurance quotes are the following: Online quotes can be obtained from anywhere and at any time. Unlike physical insurance agencies, websites don't have a specific schedule and they are available at any time. Drivers that have busy working schedules, can compare quotes from anywhere and at any time, even at midnight. Multiple choices. Almost all insurance providers, no matter if they are well-known brands or just local insurers, have an online presence. Online quotes will allow policyholders the chance to discover multiple insurance companies and check their prices. Drivers are no longer required to get quotes from just a few known insurance companies. Also, local and regional insurers can provide lower insurance rates for the same services. Accurate insurance estimates. Online quotes can only be accurate if the customers provide accurate and real info about their car models and driving history. Lying about past driving incidents can make the price estimates to be lower, but when dealing with an insurance company lying to them is useless. Usually, insurance companies will do research about a potential customer before granting him coverage. Online quotes can be sorted easily. Although drivers are recommended to not choose a policy just based on its price, drivers can easily sort quotes by insurance price. Using brokerage websites will allow drivers to get quotes from multiple insurers, thus making the comparison faster and easier. For additional info, money-saving tips, and free car insurance quotes, visit https://compare-autoinsurance.Org/ Compare-autoinsurance.Org is an online provider of life, home, health, and auto insurance quotes. This website is unique because it does not simply stick to one kind of insurance provider, but brings the clients the best deals from many different online insurance carriers. In this way, clients have access to offers from multiple carriers all in one place: this website. On this site, customers have access to quotes for insurance plans from various agencies, such as local or nationwide agencies, brand names insurance companies, etc. "Online quotes can easily help drivers obtain better car insurance deals. All they have to do is to complete an online form with accurate and real info, then compare prices", said Russell Rabichev, Marketing Director of Internet Marketing Company. CONTACT: Company Name: Internet Marketing CompanyPerson for contact Name: Gurgu CPhone Number: (818) 359-3898Email: [email protected]: https://compare-autoinsurance.Org/ SOURCE: Compare-autoinsurance.Org View source version on accesswire.Com:https://www.Accesswire.Com/595055/What-Are-The-Main-Benefits-Of-Comparing-Car-Insurance-Quotes-Online View photos