Trailer Watch: French Volcanologists Can’t Get Enough of Their Work in Sara Dosa’s Epic Doc “Fire of Love”

Trailers

Trailer Watch: French Volcanologists Can’t Get Enough of Their Work in Sara Dosa’s Epic Doc “Fire of Love”

Sara Dosa’s “Fire of Love” ignited a fiery bidding war at Sundance this year, and now audiences can get their first peek at why it had distributors so hot and bothered. National Geographic Documentary Films and Neon have released a thrilling trailer for the doc, which tells the story of married French volcanologists Katia and Maurice Krafft.

In an interview, Dosa described the film to us as “an archival collage adventure through themes of love, time, the implacable unknown, and the meaning of human existence amid the vastness of our planet’s most awesome force.” As we see in the trailer, Katia and Maurice frequently filmed one another in dangerously close proximity to volcanoes and lava flows. We even see one of them experimentally placing a foot down on lava, as though they were curious about what might happen.

The trailer illustrates that the couple clearly went about their work with humor as well as love — one shot shows Maurice frying eggs on a pan over lava before quipping that he usually cooks them better. In what appears to be archival interview footage, he also jokes that “it’s hard for volcanologists to live together; it’s volcanic! We erupt often!” while Katia laughs.

Dosa, whose previous directing credits include doc “The Seer and the Unseen,” is an Indie Spirit Award-nominated documentary director and Peabody award-winning producer. “Fire of Love” was nominated for the Documentary Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, and its editors Erin Casper and Jocelyne Chaput won the Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award at the fest.

Narrated by Miranda July, “Fire of Love” is set for a limited U.S. release on Wednesday, July 6, and will continue a nationwide rollout through the summer.