Gate to the other side

Author speaks about filmmaker Werner Herzog's friendship with volcanologist Clive Oppenheimer

A well-regarded independent filmmaker, Werner Herzog made a name for himself in the non-fiction space with the 2007 documentary “Encounters at the End of the World”. With vast, serene vistas of Antarctica, that film earned critical acclaim as much for its breathtaking camera work as for Herzog’s German-accented narration. It also won him an Oscar nomination.

During its filming, Herzog met Clive Oppenheimer, a volcanologist at Cambridge University who was studying volcanoes beneath Antarctica’s ice sheet at the time. A friendship ensued, resulting ultimately in the new Netflix documentary, “Into the Inferno”, the hellish visions engendered by the title an