Lucy Walker’s latest has found a home. A press release announced that CBSN snagged rights to “Bring Your Own Brigade,” the two-time Oscar-nominated filmmaker’s look inside the November 2018 wildfires that raged in Malibu and Paradise, California. Slated to hit theaters August 6, the film will be available on CBSN and Paramount+ August 20.
Described as a “character-driven exposé,” the film brings audiences into “the very heart of a raging inferno” and “answers a question humanity can no longer afford to ignore: Why are catastrophic wildfires increasing in number and severity around the world, and can anything be done to lessen the staggering death and destruction they cause? Drawing on hundreds of hours of astonishing wildfire footage and featuring interviews with survivors, firefighters, and scientists, the film reveals that short of solving global warming there are numerous, often simple steps that can be taken to not only mitigate the catastrophic devastation caused by wildfires, but restore health and balance to woodlands that have been mismanaged for far too long. But does society have what it takes to put aside short-term interests and outmoded thinking to confront a crisis that’s quite literally burning our world to the ground?”
“So many extraordinary people shared unforgettable stories that shattered my previous understanding of what was going on with these deadly wildfires,” said Walker. “I’m thrilled and grateful that now audiences will have a chance to take this emotional, unexpected, and revelatory journey for themselves, to meet these characters, and to immerse themselves in this investigation about what is actually going on with these fires, and what we can do to survive them. Fortunately, I learned there are actually things we can do here in order to save ourselves that I had no idea about before I set out on this quest.”
“Bring Your Own Brigade” made its world premiere at Sundance Film Festival in January.
Walker’s other feature docs include “The Crash Reel” and “Waste Land.” She received an Oscar nod for the latter. She also scored a nom for doc short “The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom.”
“The world needs more women filmmakers, so we have to keep encouraging ourselves and one another, and eventually things must get easier for us,” Walker told us in 2013. “Why not right now? I am horrified by how sexist my industry is. When I was growing up, I thought all that sexism stuff was behind us because I could look around and see that the little girls and boys around me were equally talented and equally important. But I’ve been shocked to observe that, as we’ve gotten older, my female friends have accomplished not nearly as much as my male friends.”
