Fire & Flood Film Fund

Synopsis
"Fire & Flood: Queer Resilience in the era of Climate Change" is a collaborative documentary weaving a story of intersectional climate vulnerability and resilience through the voices of multiply-marginalized LGBTQ+ people. The story centers on the near-simultaneity of the 2017 Tubbs Fire in Santa Rosa, California and Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, and follows collaborators through the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Project Status
I released a 104-min “Sneak-Peek” draft in fall 2019, which has been shown at over 30 public screenings, raising money for mutual aid and ongoing production. In summer 2020, I invited collaborators into a new set of interviews to ask for their feedback on the project, and to ask for personal media files that could enhance the visual storytelling alongside their interviews. With the onset of the pandemic, the scope of the interviews expanded to include personal experiences through quarantines, curfews, uprisings, elections, and more.

From Film to DocuSeries
The collaborator feedback in Summer 2020 and the new material required us to rethink the project’s format. As a "DocuSeries", there is more space for the depth of these stories and more possibilities for integration of single episodes into diverse classrooms, youth groups, movement spaces, and beyond.
The updated "DocuSeries" will contain ten 20-minute episodes, organized into three "volumes." These volumes will be hosted publicly online so that they can be accessed for free. The project website will showcase the episodes alongside interactive curricula designed for young adults, undergraduates, and social movement trainers.

New Visuals
Many collaborators have shared their personal media files with me, including pictures, videos, and social media posts that highlight their experiences through the disasters of 2017 and the pandemic. In addition, a 2022 grant allowed me to work with animators on a series of new titles and animated character cards. These new elements will help create visual cohesion across the ten episodes of the new "DocuSeries" format. I am also grateful to AgitArte for permission to use images from their beautifully illustrated scroll of Puerto Rico's history: "END THE DEBT! DECOLONIZE! LIBERATE PUERTO RICO!"