A new documentary produced in Oregon and across the Western United States asks people to re-examine their relationship with wildfire and what they can do to better protect their homes from igniting.
The film is called “Elemental: Reimagine Wildfire” and it will be shown at the Hollywood Theatre in Portland from Friday, May 26 through Thursday, June 1.
The film’s production began in 2017 when executive producer Ralph Bloemers and the team headed to the Columbia River Gorge to document the Eagle Creek Fire and its aftermath. The opportunity to cover wildfires expanded after the team received funding from National Geographic to pursue a feature film – and in the years after Eagle Creek, the wildfires kept coming.
“The Paradise fire in 2018, which in a matter of 8 hours burned over 18,000 homes, to the 2020 fires in Oregon, which impacted communities across Oregon and even out in the coast,” Boemers described.