(San Francisco, CA, Thursday, October 25, 2018) – Filmed during two recent wildfire seasons, Wildland is a sweeping yet deeply personal account of a single wildland firefighting crew as they struggle with fear, loyalty, dreams, and demons. What emerges is a rich story of working-class men — their exterior world, their interior lives and the fire that lies between.

Every summer, the American West burns. As climate change has increased, average temperatures have risen, resulting in a sudden increase in both the frequency and intensity of wildfires. Inside each of these fires are small crews who work to contain them by hand, using shovels, pickaxes, and methods that haven’t changed in sixty years.

With unprecedented access the filmmakers tell a story of how young men test themselves and grow up and ultimately what they carry with them along the way.

Wildland kicks off the new season of Independent Lens Monday, October 29, 2018 on PBS.

With a lifelong admiration for those who do this dangerous work, filmmakers and native Westerners Jablonski and Hudson went through firefighting training with the men in the film, in Grants Pass, Oregon, a sleepy mountain town. Here they toiled alongside and chronicled the lives of the men on their fire crew.

Each of them has come to this work for personal reasons — for some, it’s a need to test themselves, or a desire for adventure and purpose; for others, it may be the job of last resort after time in prison or a lifetime of addiction.