RAPID: The Himalaya Connection Video, Expanded

On April 25, 2015, a devastating M=7.8 earthquake occurred approximately 80 km to the northwest of the Nepalese capital of Kathmandu. At the location of this earthquake the India plate is converging with Eurasia driving the uplift of the Himalayan mountain range. This RAPID award will enable the expansion and updating of a planned television documentary (The Himalaya Connection) about earth science research in Nepal, Bangladesh, India, and Mongolia from a half-hour to a one-hour show, in order to incorporate the Nepal earthquake and the lessons learned for making the region safer from natural hazards. The earthquakes occurrence provides a rare educational opportunity to increase the impact of new scientific information about earth processes while the disaster remains fresh in the global public consciousness. Using footage of scientists doing field research and related landscape, cultural scenes, and interviews filmed over the past several years under several NSF-funded projects, the producers will build on the opening created by the earthquake and its aftermath to incorporate lessons learned from this event into a deeper understanding of the forces at work and their wider impact on the region, and the scientific research behind this knowledge. Because The Himalaya Connection was already in post production, the film can be revised and completed fairly quickly and distributed soon enough to take advantage of the recent information about Nepal that has been so widespread in the global media. The documentary's primary audience is television viewers watching PBS in North America; the film will also be distributed for international broadcast. The filmmakers are Doug Prose and Diane LaMacchia of Earth Images Foundation, award-winning producers of earth science television documentaries. Activities under this RAPID project will involve post-production, mastering, and distribution of the documentary.