By Ashley Marchand

Jon G. Bougher and Roman Safiullin, graduate students in film at the University of Florida, were in Haiti when the 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck on January 12. The students, who had arrived just three days earlier, were filming a documentary for their master's thesis. Mr. Bougher and Mr. Safiullin were in Delmas 33, a town about 25 miles from the epicenter. They returned safely to the United States several days later, Mr. Bougher on one of the few planes leaving Haiti, and Mr. Safiullin after being evacuated to the Dominican Republic.

Q: What specifically were you two doing in Haiti?

Mr. Bougher: Our master's thesis is roughly an hour or half-hour documentary film on a subject of our choosing. We chose to follow a man named Aaron Jackson, who runs an organization called Planting Peace, which does a lot of work around the globe, but they primarily run four orphanages and a school in the country of Haiti. ... He also works with a Haitian man called John Dieubon.

Q: Can you describe where you were when you first noticed that something was wrong?

Mr. Bougher: We were having an early dinner with John. ... He was talking about his vision for the future and what he wanted to do, when there was a break in the conversation and all of a sudden we felt a low rumble, and then a much more violent shake. All three of us kind of looked up, and it took probably a good three seconds before we really realized what was going on. Thank God, John's reflexes were a lot quicker than ours. He ran out the door and then to the front of the orphanage, where there was a courtyard, and made sure that all the orphans that were there were safe. Thank God they had all gotten out. We sort of waited for the quake to finish, and when it did, you heard the crumbling walls and the screaming. I think that's when it really hit home that this was really, really severe. Roman had the sense of mind to go in, grab our camera, and we went out into the streets and started filming.

Q: What were your thoughts immediately after the earthquake?

Mr. Bougher: We were filmmakers in that moment, I think. I was interested in going out and getting some honest emotional reactions. If anything, I was pulled emotionally toward the orphans.

Q: Has this event compared with anything else you've experienced in your life?

Mr. Safiullin: I can't compare this to anything—I mean, I've never seen a dead body—I've been through a minor earthquake in my own country, but I've never seen anything as extreme as this. I grew up in Kazakhstan, in a mountainous region bordering China. I've had a 4.0 or 4.5 earthquake before, when I was 10. From what I remember, a bunch of plates broke, and we ran outside and then went back the same night and went to bed. Everything was fine, nobody got injured, and there weren't any major reports of devastation.

Q: As film students, did you want to stay in Haiti to document the earthquake?

Mr. Safiullin: Absolutely. When I was operating the camera, I was looking through the monitor, so I felt there was a little bit of a distance between me and the tragedy that was happening in front of the camera.

Mr. Bougher: I think in that moment, it was really important for John [Dieubon] to be focused on taking care of the orphans and surviving with the amount of resources we had. I wouldn't want to be a drain on those resources, and I wouldn't want to distract him from the work he needs to do. Yes, we do need to go back, and we will, but hopefully at a time when there's a better sense of security for the orphans there.