Getting to complete “Wildland” was a journey for Kahlil Hudson and Alex Jablonski – a nearly five-year one, to be exact.
Before the two filmmakers began working on the project, they decided they needed to walk the walk.
The two men trained to be Type 2 wildland firefighters in an effort to capture what it’s like to be part of the Grayback Forestry crew and battle fires in the Pacific Northwest.
“We started doing the research and decided we need to train for it,” Hudson says. “Alex and I had been talking about it for a while, and we both grew up in the woods and knew how important fire safety was in those areas.”
Hudson grew up in Alaska and currently resides in Santa Fe, where he is a professor of film at the Institute of American Indian Arts.
“Wildland” opens the latest season of PBS’ Independent Lens at 8 p.m. Monday, Oct. 29. It will air on channel 9.1 at 6 a.m. and 12 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 1 and at 10 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 3; It will also air at 10 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 3 on channel 5.1.
The documentary was filmed during two recent wildfire seasons and is a sweeping yet deeply personal account of a wildland firefighting crew as the firefighters struggle with fear, loyalty, dreams, and demons.
Hudson says that every summer, the American West burns and that as temperatures have risen, the wildfires’ intensity has grown.
With a lifelong admiration for those who do this dangerous work, filmmakers and native Westerners Jablonski and Hudson went through firefighting training with the men in the film, in Grants Pass, Ore., a sleepy mountain town.
They toiled alongside and chronicled the lives of the men on their fire crew. Each of them has come to this work for personal reasons – for some, it’s a need to test themselves, or a desire for adventure and purpose; for others, it may be the job of last resort after time in prison or a lifetime of addiction.
For 46-year-old John, it’s a final chance to let go of a troubled past and be a better father; for Charlie and Aidan, both 23-year-old Bible college dropouts, the summer holds the promise of challenges that will transform them from boys to men. For their crew boss, Tim, a sixth-grade dropout and former meth addict, the tough work of firefighting is salvation.
“Each person has their reason for doing what they do,” Hudson says. “It shows how these men work seasonally and put themselves on the line. A lot of people come into this work because they need it. The stories are all different, but they come together in a common bond. Each one is trying to make a difference.”
Hudson says he hopes the film will start a conversation about climate change.
“With the growing intensity and frequency of fires, it’s becoming a bigger issue and entering the public consciousness,” Hudson says. “We made a number of trips up to Oregon. We started training one year prior to when we started filming. We went through the physical training and did all of the refresher courses.”
