Krakatoa
As a boy, Joe was an avid reader. He had been very impressed by a book that described the Krakatoa eruption of 1883. In that year, an obscure island in Indonesia exploded in one of the biggest volcanic eruptions of recorded history: the explosion was heard thousands of miles away, and many people died. In 1933, for the fiftieth anniversary of the eruption, Joe Rock produced a documentary titled Krakatoa: partly about the island's history before and after the eruption, but mostly about the eruption. Making the documentary was a challenge, because Joe had no film footage of the island and he was unable to locate any witnesses who recalled the original 1883 event. After making this movie on a very low budget and releasing it, Joe went on a trip to England. He had formed a production company to make Krakatoa, but he permitted that company to go out of business because he had no further projects envisioned for it.
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