A once-verdant hillside lined with perfectly spaced rows of crops now sits gray and singed under a big, open sky. A woman walks past piles of wood and tree debris, surveying the landscape’s remaining patches of greenery.

These are just a few of the scenes from Fire Season, a new documentary short directed by Lydia Erickson (MFA 2022 Social Documentary Film) in which Napa County residents must face the stark aftermath of 2020’s particularly devastating wildfire season. In varying stages of rebuilding and reevaluating, the subjects of Erickson’s film take viewers on a journey through the lasting effects of climate change, watching as their livelihoods and homes are ripped away from them in an instant. A native of the area, Erickson immersed herself in the area and its people with raw interviews and a particular focus on local grape growers and the wine industry, now under threat. What results is a thoughtful meditation on the material and psychological effects of chronic wildland fire. Erickson’s film recently screened in Los Angeles as part of SVA Premieres, an industry showcase for recent graduates, but will have its New York premiere at the SVA Theatre, 333 West 23rd Street, on Saturday, October 1, 8:15pm, as part of the 12th Annual MFA Social Documentary Film Thesis Showcase.

Fire Season is one of nine films created by the MFA Social Documentary Film class of 2022 that will screen online from Thursday, September 29, through Sunday, October 9, in addition to the in-person screening of select films on Saturday, October 1, and a virtual Q&A with select filmmakers on Monday, October 3. Other films in the showcase include Sunny Liu’s Pianoman, following the journey of undocumented immigrant David Avendano, who has been pursuing his dream to become a piano craftsman since he was a teenager and is now confronted with the threat of losing the Yonkers, New York, piano-restoration factory he spent his entire life building. Zhaowei Hu’s Heavers offers a glimpse into the lives and legacies of the vanishing “heavers,” or movers, on Mount Tai, China, who are gradually being replaced with modern transportation and machinery. JM Mitchell’s autobiographical story of self-acceptance and reconciliation, Also Beloved, zeroes in on queer clergy members who have claimed their own spaces in the Christian church.

The showcase is more than just an opportunity to hear from these filmmakers about their processes and future plans, it is a chance to see the work of the next generation of storytellers.

Features

The latest edition of the annual festival presents thesis works by the MFA Social Documentary Film class of 2022