Under the Volcano

Go behind the music at the sunny Caribbean studio that birthed some of the biggest hits of the 1980s.

Founded by famed Beatles producer Sir George Martin, AIR Studios Montserrat was the tropical retreat and hit factory that played host to the major acts of the era – where Paul McCartney jammed with Stevie Wonder after John Lennon’s death, where Mick Jagger and Keith Richards reconciled The Rolling Stones, and where Dire Straits put Brothers in Arms to tape. The studio, and the island on which it was housed, saw a decade of productivity, until a series of natural disasters brought the creative idyll to an end.

Australian director Gracie Otto (The Last Impresario) crafts a toe-tapping, star-studded tribute to this lost paradise of pop, bringing you into the recording room with such stars as Sting, Mark Knopfler, Jimmy Buffett and more. At once scintillating and celebratory, Under the Volcano weaves together archival footage with insightful new interviews and the vivid testimony of the local Montserratians who lent their hands – and, sometimes, voices – to the music made there.

“A gentle and sweet documentary that pays homage to some of the most creative musical artists of the modern world … and acts as a love letter to Montserrat and its magnetic, peaceful serenity.” – CineAddiction