Institute History
Description
Young Men and Fire began as a film that intended to follow a single wildland firefighting crew for the course of one summer. The crew is based in Southern Oregon but travels throughout the west to fire calls from Arizona to Washington. This is a 20 person hand crew that works on the ground digging fireline, back burning and building fire breaks as part of the coordinated suppression of large wildfires. I say “intended to follow” because as we made the film — as is often the case in documentary — the nature of the film itself began to change. What was initially going to be about a single crew, and the dynamics of the crew, matured into a film that is about the individuals that make up the crew. We see a cross-section of men at different points in their lives, all who have come to the hard work of wild land firefighting because of different pressures in their lives. For some of them these pressures are internal — a need to prove themselves as tough or capable, or a desire for some kind of adventure ? for others these pressures are financial resulting from a tough job market, a recent run-in with the law, or similar 63 bad luck. And in seeing these men we come to understand how young men grow up and the various Stations of the Cross in a man’s life.