Living with wildfire
Sep. 9—Encouraging dialogue about needed change after years of devastating fires throughout the western United States, a new documentary, "Elemental," will premiere this weekend in the Rogue Valley in conjunction with the two-year anniversary of the 2020 Almeda Fire.
The film opens to news footage of a slew of devastating fires, many of which communities are still recovering from — Boulder, Colorado (2021), Paradise, California (2018), El Paso County, Colorado (2012), Greenville, California (2021), Phoenix and Talent, Oregon (2020).
Executive producer Ralph Bloemers and director Trip Jennings spent five years on the film, beginning even before a number of fires mentioned in the film had even happened. Jennings, a longtime journalist and creator of the PBS series "Weathered," began working on climate-related films in college when he produced a short film on the aftermath of the Biscuit Fire, which burned a half-million acres in Southern Oregon.
With an increasing number of wildfires, Jennings began creating a short film in the wake of the 2017 Eagle Creek Fire to help residents of the devastated Columbia Gorge area "make sense of that fire and what they had been through," Bloemers said.
"We went into communities and talked to school kids. We went with experts to see how forest was doing. We took to the air to look at patterns of the burn, and we watched time-lapse footage from wildlife cameras in the Gorge," said Bloemers. As more and more fires occurred, Bloemers said, it was apparent there was work to be done.
"At one point, we thought we were done with the film. It was early 2020 when the pandemic had hit. It was a horrible time to finish a film and enter a film festival, but it seemed like it was time to be done ... to finish the book, so to speak. And then the 2020 fires hit so close to home ... we had to include them," Bloemers added.
The film provides an in-depth look at the way fires behave in wildland and urban areas, historical methods of dealing with and living with fire, as well as more than four-dozen interviews with firefighters, government officials, fire survivors and various experts.
The film includes footage of the crew accompanying survivors to survey the aftermath of fires. A third of the footage in the film is related to fires in Oregon, with other fires included from California, Montana and Colorado.
"We had people who lost everything in the 2020 Labor Day fires who knew we were working on this project," Bloemers said.
"They reached out to us while those fires were still burning and invited us to go in with them and see if their homes survived. In one instance, we went into the Santiam Canyon with one of them. We were there when stuff was still burning and smoldering. We saw power lines down everywhere, gashes burned into the road from live power lines."
Bloemers said the fall of 2020 provided enough footage for nearly its own documentary, despite the previous notion that the film was done, "so the film expanded from 47 minutes to an hour and 20 minutes," he added. "It added two years to the project, for a total of five."
In addition to interviews with fire-affected community members, "Elemental" shares extensive research done by retired U.S. Forest Service research fire scientist Jack Cohen.
"The things we learned from Dr. Cohen were fascinating. We learned that the condition of vegetation more than 60 feet from a home has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not the home will ignite," Bloemers said.
"Vegetation can matter within a certain distance of the home, but the ignition and flammability of the home is far more affected by things like having bark mulch right under the siding or fine materials in the gutter that can ignite in a fire.
"We interviewed one woman who had worked to fire-harden her home before the 2020 fires, and we show footage of a whole forest around her home, completely burned up. Her home was untouched," he added.
Tucker Teutsch, executive director of the Firebrand Resilience Collective, tasked with helping the community navigate the aftermath of the 2020 fires, said he watched "Elemental" three times but knew within a few minutes of his first viewing that it should be shared locally.
"It's such an important discussion we need to have in our community. This is mandatory viewing for our whole staff to see. We employ a number of fire survivors on our team, and this provided a huge amount of catharsis and a message of hope," said Teutsch, noting that it was sobering to realize the ongoing level of fire danger for communities everywhere.
"We just lost ... homes in Klamath Falls today, and ... in Weed. We really need to start thinking very, very hard about how we protect our communities through individual empowerment but also coming together as a community," Teutsche said Thursday.
"To have this be done by an Oregon crew that's worked for National Geographic, even if someone doesn't agree with everything in the film, they'll find something of value. They did a beautiful job."
Bloemers said those involved with the project are hopeful that "Elemental" will pose some questions as well as offer real-life solutions for living with wildfire and show that preparedness could prove more beneficial than fire suppression.
"If there's anything that comes from the film for Trip and I, it's compelling people to take action to prepare their homes for fire," he said.
"Part of our message is that it's far cheaper to spend a few days or weeks to prepare each home than years to rebuild. The film is about empowering people with good information. ... It's crucial that we take the steps that we can."
Screenings of "Elemental" are planned from 6 to 8 p.m. daily, Sept. 11-17, at the Varsity Theater in Ashland; 12:30 to 2:30 p.m., Sept. 13 and 15 at the Talent library; and 1 to 3 p.m. Sept. 14 at the Phoenix library.
Hosted by the Firebrand Resiliency Collective, the screenings are free, but donations are welcome. Guests can purchase a $5 raffle ticket to support the project and for a chance to win a "go bag" full of fire safety essentials.
To view the film trailer and for more info, see elementalfilm.com/
Reach reporter Buffy Pollock at 541-776-8784 or bpollock@rosebudmedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @orwritergal.
