“Burn” Shows A Year In The Lives Of Detroit’s Firefighters

Category: News Briefs Published on Friday, 28 September 2012 10:26 Written by WWJ

DETROIT (CBS Detroit) A new kind of reality video is coming to theaters near you — and it doesn’t involve any hair-pulling or name-calling.

The meltdowns are for real.

“Burn,” a movie that features a year in the lives of a team of Detroit firefighters, premieres Friday and Saturday, Sept. 28 and 29, at The Fillmore Detroit. Tickets are $25, and still available HERE.

The movie, produced by actor Denis Leary, shows what truly goes on behind the red doors of the Detroit Fire Department.

“I wish my head could forget what my eyes have seen,” one firefighter says in the movie trailer.

Filmmakers Brenna Sanchez and Tom Putnam garnered an exclusive agreement with the Detroit Fire Department that allowed them to embed with firefighters for an entire year, filming no-holds-barred.

“Firefighters don’t talk, they’re not on the couch with Oprah,” Sanchez said. This is the first time viewers will see inside the day-to-day lives of some of the hardest-working first responders in the world.

Detroit has an average of 30 fires a day, and viewers will see some explosive situations up close and personal.

“You’ll see the flames as it unfolds,” Putnam said, adding, “It’s an action movie, it’s shot in widescreen, it’s got great music, we’re up in helicopters, we’re going into fires with these guys.”

The entire movie’s been funded by charitable donations, which Putnam said makes it “possibly the largest film ever to be made this way.”

But it didn’t happen easily: It took filmmakers four years to shoot 1,000 hours of video — which filled 140 hard drives — until they got exactly what they wanted.

“No one’s ever made a firefighting documentary before,” Putnam said. “Detroit’s probably the one place you can do it because they’re so busy that you can actually go to fires with the guys, no one’s ever sent cameras into fires before, no one’s spent this much time in a firehouse before, so I think the movie has a lot of firsts.”

The goal is to “explore human struggles, hope and personal courage in the face of overwhelming odds,” filmmakers said in a press release.

In the meantime, filmmakers are still trying to raise money to ensure the film gets as wide an audience as possible.

As of August 28, 2012, they still need to raise $325,000 to $450,000 — “depending on how wide we want to release the film,” filmmakers said, adding, “Since we do not have a distributor, all the costs of releasing the film fall to us. The more we raise, the more cities we can take it to.

“We know it may seem like a lot, but it’s actually a tiny fraction of what most films cost to get released. And while we’re able to keep costs low, with the support of our partners and social media support, these costs do add up. Just to give you some perspective: Last year, a small documentary we know of was bought by a major distributor that spent $2 million dollars on advertising alone. And you probably never heard of it.”

Click HERE to donate money.

http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2012/09/28/burn-shows-a-year-in-the-lives-of-detroits-firefighters/