Screenwriting: can you ever make a movie surrounding a real natural disaster?

like have some plot or do some knind of biopic on say...the earthquake in Haiti? Or is a true natural disaster not good material? I know Sean Penn visited Haiti and helped with earthquake relief. My best friend is about to go to film school, and he has the same energy/spirit/charisma as Emile Hirsch in Into the Wild. Sean Penn is the director I want to notice my friend. If you can't really make a movie about the earthquake in Haiti, is there some other way I can help him get noticed by Sean Penn?