REVELATION PERTH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL: Burn is a gripping documentary on a firefighting unit struggling to save a city from its own self-destructive tendencies. For a year, directors Tom Putnam and Brenna Sanchez were on the ground and in the burning homes of Detroit’s outer, decaying suburbs with the men of Engine Company 50. The result is a portrait that revels in the camaraderie, courage and pride of these heroes, but also one that pinpoints the greater issues of why traditional America is rotting away.
Detroit firemen have not had a pay increase in a decade
Burn takes several points of view, each one representing an aspect of the issues faced by the firefighters and, by extension, their cash-strapped department. At its core, the film has two distinct identities: the soon-to-retire Dave Parnell, a recently-widowed 60-year-old veteran with 33 years of service to his hometown brigade; and Brendan 'Doogie’ Milewski, a 30-year-old newly wed rookie who’s suffered from paraplegia since a wall collapsed on him during a routine call-out. Additionally, another comes into the picture: Donald Austin, a Detroit native (as is co-director Sanchez) who returns from a cashed-up gig running LA’s firehouses with grand visions of making the Detroit division into a state of the art, slickly- run operation. He soon finds out, however, that cities like Detroit – once-prosperous industrial towns now ruined economically – don’t have the money for service sector improvements. Austin, a former firefighter himself, ultimately engenders empathy thanks to the sheer hopelessness of his situation.
As these three stories unfold, Putnam and Sanchez also afford us time with the other men of Engine 50, all of whom exhibit a matter-of-fact approach to the dangers and plight of their work. It is revealed, rather incredibly, that Detroit firemen have not had a pay increase in a decade (most take second jobs to make ends meet), and that a large proportion of the truck fleet are dry-docked for repairs that never seem to come.
Of course, the most extraordinary sequences that Putnam and Sanchez capture are the ones that take audiences inside the engulfed buildings, dozens of which burn down every week in Detroit. The city’s plummeting population has left abandoned dwellings across the cityscape, many of them falling prey to arsonists. The combination of the co-directors’ hand-held prowess with the helmet-mounted cameras on the firemen themselves provide a thrilling and terrifying glimpse into the danger that these heroes face, sometimes up to five times a night.
Burn does some eulogising for a great nation that may never achieve that greatness again, but it also celebrates the spirit of community that built it up. The film reminds us all that heroes are often brave people just doing what they know needs to be done in a crisis.
