The Day that Changed My Life

Television (Trailer) – 2015

Blown away by "the emotional intensity" of a series of video interviews with survivors after the February 2011 quakes, Chris Dudman began making a documentary about some of those "profoundly affected" by the event. After debuting on TV One in February 2015, it won best local doco at the Documentary Edge Festival. With the aid of the original conversations, new interviews, reconstructions and unseen footage, Dudman concentrates on six people’s stories: including a construction worker, a journalist, and a man whose wife was trapped inside the CTV building.

Honest, raw emotion and openness is a pretty powerful thing... Very humanising. You couldn’t help but empathise with these people, many of whom had been so courageous. You could put yourself in their shoes and shake your head in disbelief. In a 'there but for the grace of God go I' kind of way.
– Director Chris Dudman