The following questions and answers are excerpted from a conversation that followed the NBR screening of The Rescue.

This story is incredibly dramatic on its face. What were the underlying themes that most resonated with you?

E. Chai Vasarhelyi: I think it’s important to remember how divided the world was in 2018. And here’s a story about people who came together — irregardless of national boarders, languages, politics — to save twelve children and a coach that no one has ever met before. And that idea of our common humanity uniting us (be it as parents, as children, or simply as people who are interested in doing the right thing) was really moving to both Jimmy and myself. It felt like one of those stories that was important, and was in some way even more important than even the rescue itself. Sharing the story, and reminding us all of what we have in common, was really important.

Jimmy Chin: I think we are always looking for the subtext, and stories that — as Chai just said — transcend the subjects and the event. But, that being said, there were also a lot of very tantalizing layers to it! You know, these unlikely heroes, the tension, and frankly it seemed like a huge challenge to make the film. And I think Chai and I like challenges! In terms of the ideas behind these last three films we’ve made, they are about human potential, in some bigger sense. About the potential to be your best selves… the potential to elevate who you are in these high-stakes moments. And in some ways we found a lot of similarities between the subject of our previous film and these divers who live these incredible lives and shape them entirely around cave diving. It’s a lifestyle, it’s not even a sport, really. They are devoted to the craft, and the craft requires perfection. And the stakes are extraordinarily high. So there was that part that really drew us in as well.

if we could all rise to the occasion to be our best selves, we’d be in a very different place

Can you talk about your filmmaking process?

ECV: I think we both agree that with nonfiction films, the magic is in the obstacles. Because unlike in narrative or fiction films, you can’t “write yourself out” of a problem. We hold ourselves to journalistic standards. So the constraints become opportunities to innovate or refine your craft. And this film had every constraint: if you were allowed to film in the cave, it’s pitch-black. If you filmed underwater, it was super muddy. No civilians were allowed to film within the cave. There was really no known footage of the cave itself; the British divers, as you can see in the movie, actively avoided the cameras of the press. There was a rights situation where the children and their families were not open to being filmed. And it was a pandemic. And it’s in Thailand, half way across the world. So long story short, there’s no footage. We had this very unusual position where we had an amazing story but no footage— unlike many documentaries that have tons of footage and no story! It just became a task about how to work around those limitations. And I think our reenactments just had to happen, which we realized early on. Because how do you allow people to understand what these British divers did under the circumstances?

JC: I mean, it was either animations, or recreations, you know? And I think that it was just about bringing audiences into the moment— the way that we put it together was that we wanted the divers (and we brought all the divers together) to really demonstrate how they did it. Down to the minute details. And so really it was a hugely informative experience with them, just to see them preparing to do what they do. Because even if you’re filming in a tank in a studio, it’s still diving. You still can’t make mistakes. And just to see the details: there’s a brief shot in the film of Jason swimming with five tanks. And it’s just a brief shot. But that’s the kind of task they have to do, and that’s accurate to what they did. How they swam, how they had to transport tanks… it’s already hugely complicated and difficult, and Jason’s down there swimming with all of this gear… All the details and the authenticity of what you’re seeing in the film is because they demonstrated for us exactly what happened.

How did you balance the various perspectives of the event?

JC: I think we really wanted to show what happened, you know? These details are all true to the events. One of the challenges I think about the story is that it is such a fractured perspective, in terms of… you know, the Thai Navy Seals were managing the rescue sight. The divers had their intentions. The water workers had their mission. And so everybody that was involved all had the best intentions, but you know… when you go on a complicated rescue sight (and I’ve been on some, on location), it can be extraordinarily chaotic. One of the main things that is focused on during those situations is making sure that the rescuers themselves don’t put themselves in danger. Because then you’re just adding victims. So that’s the reality of a situation like that. If you’re managing a rescue sight, and two random guys show up and are like, “excuse me, excuse me… we’re going to go in there…” you know, it gets kind of sketchy. We wanted to show the balance of what the challenges were, what it actually looked like, and present it so that people could feel and see all these different perspectives.

ECV: Just to add to that: we were very much drawn to being true to the essence of the story, and the essence of the story is that people from all walks of life — different languages, special forces, volunteers, Americans, Thais, Chinese, Australians — all came together, in spite of the challenges, to achieve the impossible. And if we all could do that, if we could all rise to the occasion to be our best selves, we’d be in a very different place. So that’s why it was our imperative, our moral imperative, just to compliment what they did, to try to include all those different points of view.