‘I wish my head could forget what my eyes have seen,’ mourns Dave Parnell, a 33-year veteran of the Detroit Fire Department. With eight months of service remaining until retirement at the age of 60, the experienced Fire Engine Operator enjoys a gentle ribbing from his colleagues for his lament – just one of many of his self-styled platitudes; however the men that have become his brothers-in-arms in the war against the city’s destruction also recognise the hard and harrowing truth of his words.
Burn: One Year on the Front Lines of the Battle to Save Detroit relates Parnell’s struggles, watching his beloved home town become an empty shell of its former prosperous self despite his lifelong efforts in his neighbourhood. Being a fire fighter was never easy, but with blazes rising in tandem with the number of abandoned houses, and the level of staff, funds and resources shrinking alongside the Detroit population, the old hand has only seen his job get harder. As incoming Fire Department Commissioner Donald Austin puts it, they might just be ‘managing the misery.’
Austin provides the second of the documentary’s subjects, director/producers Tom Putnam (The Hottie & the Nottie) and Brenna Sanchez (TV’s Toddlers and Tiaras) weaving three diverse reports of fighting fires in the failing city into a detailed dissection of an urban centre on the brink of unmitigated disaster. As the local-born, Los Angeles-trained administrator endeavours to rein in the widespread damage on the scantest of budgets, his inability and unwillingness to replace failing engines, equipment and safety gear cuts former officer Brendan ‘Doogie’ Milewski deeply, his 12-year career abruptly ending after paralysing injuries sustained in the literal line of fire.
Flitting between the trio of personal tales, Burn employs its character-centric approach to paint a group portrait of gallantry, resilience and tenacity. Amidst the devastation lurks the daring of men driven by despair and optimism in equal measures, all three unable to simply give up on themselves or their city. Ample evidence of the reality of their work litters their unflinching to-camera interviews, as the filmmakers glide in and out of busy fire houses, angry press conferences and burning buildings. More often than not, the sounds of Detroit legends The Stooges accompany the action, adding the perfect gritty, gripping rock complement.
Burn may exist amongst a growing collection of features concerned with the undoing of the famed Motor City, including Detropia, Detroit Wild City and even Searching for Sugar Man; however the familiarity of the film’s scenes, stories and statistics cannot temper its tenderness and intimacy. Each chronicle of the city’s recent history only deepens its impact, with Burn again assembling images and accounts of Detroit’s lingering humanity that cannot be unseen.
Rating: 3 ½ stars out of 5
Burn: One Year on the Front Lines of the Battle to Save Detroit
Director: Tom Putnam and Brenna Sanchez
USA, 2012, 86 mins
Revelation Perth International Film Festival
http://www.revelationfilmfest.org
July 4 – 14
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