Documentaries
NORTHERN LIGHTS: THE GREAT ENCOUNTER
Olivier Grunewald and Bernadette Gilbertas take us on a journey in pursuit of the northern lights, for an exceptionally dazzling and captivating encounter! Filming the auroras in real time in order to capture their beauty, their movements, and their subtlest tones was a real technical challenge for Olivier. The filmmakers also wanted to give a voice to enthusiasts, photographers, astrophysicists, and space meteorologists who wait for the Northern Lights like stars every winter to witness their hypnotic ballet and try to understand them better.
GORONGOSA THE PARK OF RECONCILIAION
Once upon a time, there was Gorongosa, the richest and most diverse national park in southern Africa. Elephants, lions, leopards, wild dogs, Cape elands, and buffalo roamed this wild territory in the heart of Mozambique all year round. Seventeen years of bloody civil war destroyed this haven of life. By 1992, Gorongosa Park had lost 95% of its wildlife, leaving behind deserted landscapes and devastated communities. This film tells the incredible story of the park's rebirth. After years of fighting poaching and thanks to the reintroduction of extinct species, Gorongosa was able to rise from the ashes. But more than anything else, this wild territory has become a human rights park, the driving force behind an entire region, now capable of providing social, economic, and moral support to the surrounding populations. Today, Gorongosa has become a link between nature and humankind.
DALLOL, AT THE FRONTIERS OF LIFE
In northern Ethiopia, Dallol combines the most extreme conditions on Earth. At the bottom of the African rift, under a 2000 meters thick salt crust, a magma pocket heats up the waters that infiltrate from the Ethiopian highlands. Loaded with mineral elements, the hot water rises, building the Dallol dome in the middle of the Danakil. In January 2016, for the first time, biologists, microbial ecologists, geologists, and crystallographers landed on this strange planet.
NYIRAGONGO, JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF EARTH
At the bottom of the Nyiragongo volcano boils the planet’s largest lava lake. This African giant is the most active volcano in Africa. Its eruptions have devastated the capital and its more than one million inhabitants in 1977 and again in 2002. Anticipating the risk of Nyiragongo’s eruption has become a major concern for the people living at the foot of the volcano.
KAWAH IJEN, THE MYSTERY OF THE BLUE FLAMES
In 2008, Olivier Grunewald heard about a strange phenomenon in the heart of the Kawah Ijen volcano in Indonesia. Olivier will return for several years and spend 30 nights in the crater, in the middle of extremely corrosive gases, to bring back images of these unique volcanic manifestations. The high temperature sulfuric gases ignite, producing electric blue flares. At night, miners come to collect the crystallized sulfur.
Videos
All our images were filmed at real speed in UHD, without color modification, and are already calibrated. They are available upon request.
MY DRONE HAS MELTED ABOVE THE ICELANDIC LAVA!
An eruption started in Iceland on July 10, 2023 at the foot of Mount Litli Hrútur, to the north of the Fagradalsfjall eruption that had lasted 6 months in 2021 and restarted in 2022 for 3 weeks. The activity began with the opening of a large fracture, and after a few days, a crater began to form in which huge gas bubbles exploded. From the outset, the lava has been flowing southwards, reassuring the authorities. A major road and all the pipes and cables that bring hot water and electricity to the capital Reykjavik are just a short distance to the east of the volcanic activity.
NORTHERN LIGHTS ULTRA DYNAMIC
If solar winds are very dense and very fast, the northern lights can move and shift at very high speeds. These shots were filmed at real speed in UHD and are available for professional use.
THE INCREDIBLE LAVA GEYSER OF ICELAND
In May 2021, the eruption of the Fagradalsfjall volcano in the southwest of Iceland, which had begun two months earlier, had a unique phase of activity by projecting at regular intervals a real geyser of lava. Its crater filled up until it became a lake of magma which, while bubbling, projected for a few moments molten material at a height of nearly 100 meters. Then the lava flowed on the sides of the crater while this one emptied again.
NORTHERN LIGHTS, AURORAL CROWNS
When the aurora reaches the middle of the sky, at its zenith, a crown of light is activated, often revealing a wide variety of colors. These shots were filmed at real speed in UHD and are available for professional use.
LAKE AND LAVA FLOWS FROM FAGRADALSFJALL VOLCANO IN ICELAND
Cela faisait 8 siècles que la péninsule de Reykjanes ne s’était pas embrasée. Face à cette éruption débutée en mars 2021, suivie par une nouvelle période d’activité en août 2022, les autorités et les volcanologues s’inquiètent des potentielles répercussions économiques, sanitaires d’une activité volcanique qui pourrait s’étaler sur des années, et affecter les centrales géothermiques à proximité, et la route de l’aéroport, qui coupée, pourrait priver l’île de tout approvisionnement.
MARYAM DENGELAT, THE DIZZINESS OF FAITH
God once entrusted the Ethiopians with the art of revealing his home. They dug more than two hundred troglodyte churches in the cliffs of Tigray. The church of Maryam Dengelat, isolated at a height of 30 meters, became inaccessible following successive collapses of the cliff, has opened its door again and revealed its magnificent paintings after 400 years of oblivion, thanks to the will of a philosopher-historian and a team of mountaineers.
PHOTOGRAPHER OLIVIER GRUNEWALD CLOSE TO THE LAVA LAKE OF NYIRAGONGO VOLCANO
Photographer Olivier Grunewald (www.oliviergrunewald.com) approaches as closely as possible to the lava lake of Mount Nyiragongo in the Democratic Republic of Congo during an expedition of the Society of Geneva Volcanology (SVG). The images were shot by Peter Vetsch from the camp installed during nine days in the crater. Olivier will be the third of the team to reach the shore of the eight million cubic meters of lava bubbling after Marc Caillet and Franck Pothé. Excerpt from Olivier Grunewald's film, "Nyiragongo, Journey to the Center of the Earth".
A DRONE IN THE HEART OF THE CRATERS OF THE VOLCANO STROMBOLI
Known since ancient times as the lighthouse of the Mediterranean, the Stromboli volcano in the Aeolian Islands in Italy is permanently active. It has been the volcano that has introduced many people to active volcanism and for many has generated a real passion. Until July 2019, its summit was accessible and many groups climbed it every day. Since then its activity has increased and its summit is closed for safety reasons.
MY DRONE IN THE ERTA ALE VOLCANO
A drone ventures into an Ethiopian volcano
It was at the bottom of the Erta Ale crater, above its lava lake, that I carried out my first experience of taking pictures of a volcano using a drone.
Operating a drone in an extreme environment, where the heat of the lava generates complex aerology and the magnetism of the magma interferes with radio waves, is a highly formative experience. Thanks to a radio transmission system, I was able to recover the images filmed by the camera as my drone ended up in the lava lake.
ERTA ALE VOLCANOES: TWO VIEWS OF THE SAME SITE
The Erta Ale volcano has become an increasingly popular tourist destination! It is one of the few places where it is possible to observe a lava lake, a rare and little-known phenomenon. However, visitors' lack of respect and the total absence of waste management have left the site in an alarming state. In February 2018, a small group spontaneously launched a clean-up operation. More resources are needed, and the association “Aux Origines du Monde” will seek funds to launch a large-scale clean-up to raise awareness among the authorities, local populations, and visitors about the value and importance of respecting the site