BBC Storyville - The Night Notre-Dame Burned (2020)
Tells the dramatic story of the devastating fire at Notre-Dame Cathedral on 15th April 2019. Blow by blow, it follows the team of brave firefighters - from the men and women on the frontline to the brigade chief - as they face the epic responsibility of saving one of the city's most emblematic and much–loved symbols from burning to the ground.
As well as on-the-ground helmet cam and drone footage of the unfolding, dramatic events, the film-makers – the Naudet Brothers – who famously recorded the collapse of the Twin Towers on 9/11 in New York – were themselves at the scene to record a moment in history in their own capital city.
In one tense moment, after the collapse of the spire, we are inside the situation room where President Macron must decide whether to risk the lives of 40 firefighters by sending them into the burning towers to stop the fire bringing total devastation to the building. This observational footage is intercut with the testimony of the firefighters themselves, whose pride and heroic dignity in fulfilling their roles cannot fail to bring a viewer to tears.
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