Breathing Prescribed Fire by Robin Lasser

Breathing Prescribed Fire is a ten-minute film that speaks to the agency of controlled burns. It includes interviews with fire scientists and juxtaposes the science of fire with the history, philosophy, and poetry of fire as a land management practice. This documentary takes place at Blodgett Research Forest in the Sierra Nevada. The film recognizes fire as a critical ecological process that maintains the functioning of a mixed conifer forest. The film is shot with an infrared camera that records heat, as well as HD video, and utilizes animated documentation of the burning landscape, mixed with interviews of scientists conducting research on site. Science is mixed with art as spoken word postcard narratives theatrically introduce nuances of our human history with fire, as well as poetic and philosophic musings.
This short film includes a two-minute epilogue: a documentation of the December 2023 controlled pile burns along Opal Creek in Big Basin. The music for this film documents the “song” of the trees left standing - providing musical support for the interviews and poetry included in the film.

[@christopheralan5666]

Stop burning our Forrest!

[@Rozdraws]

This is literally unwatchable

[@michellesmithunroe2463]

Wow. I did not see that coming. It's unfortunate that the presentation was not only distracting from what I find to be a very interesting topic but left me feeling oddly like I've just watched an episode of Night Gallery. I read in the description that the music was supposed to be the song of the trees but I can say for certain that mine don't sing that way at all. 😵‍💫