'Elemental' film features Oregon wildfires, looks to shift relationship with wildfire

A new documentary released this year, "Elemental" explores humanity's current relationship with wildfire, offering a hopeful look into how to better prepare for and live with such a powerful force as it becomes more common.

With over a third of the footage recorded in Oregon, capturing well-known infernos such as the Santiam Canyon and Eagle Creek fires, the 81-minute film is screening a multiple locations around the state this summer and fall, including in Eugene for a week to mark the second anniversary of the Labor Day Fires.

The film follows researchers and scientists studying how to better understand fire and the crucial role that forests play in our environment, including visual representations of how those natural landscapes can regrow and support life even after a burn.

Previous viewers of the documentary who had suffered loss from wildfire were left with a feeling of hope, because it represented their own struggle to seek out resources and solutions post-wildfire, said Ralph Bloemers, executive producer of the film.

“After the Eagle Creek Fire there were so many people worried about the Gorge, who really love that place, and I wanted to be able to show them that their loved one was doing fine,” Bloemers said. “Nature comes back quickly, but in the process of making this and as fires in Oregon got worse, you learn that these fires often result in home loss and the destruction of communities. Houses don’t grow back like trees.”

Loretta Miles, owner of independent Salem Cinema, was so moved emotionally the first time she watched "Elemental" that she decided to run it in her theater for a full week, rather than the requested one-time showing Bloemers had been hoping for.

“Once I had seen the film, I knew they had something much more important on their hands than they even realized. It’s so powerful,” Miles said. “This information is urgent, and the film is done remarkably well without making you feel like you’re being lectured. The people who made this aren’t just passionate about filmmaking, but about the planet, and you can really feel that when you watch.”

The film will be shown for a week in Eugene at Art House, the film-music-espresso venue that recently opened in the former Bijou Art Cinemas location at 492 E. 13th Ave. The first showing on Friday, Sept. 9 will be hosted by FUSEE, Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics & Ecology.

There are two main veins of the documentary: developing a clear path forward to community safety and showing how the outdoor spaces we love – those that give us our sense of place as Oregonians – can come back post-burn and offer a new kind of beauty, albeit different.

“When it comes to forests and wildfire, there is a lot of beauty in that cycle,” Jennings said. “We are not at a point yet where we’re going to lose those places we love to go, our best friends, even though a lot of them will change. This film shows that there are ways we can still experience the forest and that beauty we love.”

The documentary provides both inspiring and harrowing accounts from individuals who have survived these fires and are able to tell their stories themselves, demonstrating the importance of the issue directly. A demonstratable solution offered in the film is home hardening, the process of preparing your home to be a defensible space in a multitude of ways, focusing on durability and adaptation to the threats of wildfire.

“Playing the hand we are dealt, we are not capable of stopping wildfire,” Jennings said. “We go out every summer and fight this battle and every summer we come back and say we lost. We can’t keep playing that hand and expect a different outcome. While we might not be able to stop wildfires, we can learn how to live with them and even how to thrive in that world.”

Already spreading across the Pacific Northwest, the film has impacted survivors of wildfire, firefighters and even politicians, prompting Oregon Sen. Jeff Golden, D-Ashland, to pursue topics like wildfire risk insurance and discounts for households who practice home hardening, according to Bloemers.

“It’s easy to assume a documentary about wildfire is going to be doom and gloom, and we do convey the seriousness of this issue and the intensity of the fires the last few years,” Jennings said. “There is an actionable, clear path forward to living with wildfire, and it doesn’t look like concrete bunkers. This documentary just shows that it isn’t game over yet. The feeling of hope is real.”

Showtimes for "Elemental" are listed on Art House's website. It's also showing in Salem Cinema in Salem and in other theaters across the West, including a screening in Ashland for the anniversary of the Almeda fire. On Friday, Sept. 30, the film will also be shown at Upper McKenzie Community Center.

For more on available screenings of Elemental, visit elementalfilm.com/screen-elemental. For more information on home hardening and fire preparedness, visit wildfirerisk.org.

Skyla Patton is an outdoor reporter and multimedia storyteller. She can be reached at spatton@gannett.com and on Twitter @ganjajournalist.

This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: Oregon wildfires featured in new documentary 'Elemental'