A paradigm shift in disaster mental health research has renewed the emphasis on the survivors’ experiences of suffering and healing. This article highlights the importance of utilizing documentary analysis as one of the important qualitative methodologies to explore post-disaster distress of the survivors. Following Figueroa’s (2008) approach to the analysis of audio-visual texts, the methodological steps, outcomes and their salience have been illustrated through an analysis of a documentary produced by Rakesh Sharma titled Final Solution, based on post-Godhra riots in 2002 in India. The two-phased analysis involved constructionist grounded theory procedures with an initial focus on the documentary as a ‘whole’. The methodological steps, rigour and the resulting categories of survivors’ suffering (‘overwhelmed by losses’, ‘relational disruption’, ‘living a forced identity’ and ‘denial of justice and equity’) are discussed in the light of the damage a disaster causes to survivors’ experiences of self and social worlds.