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The filmmakers behind the 2023 documentary talk about the high-risk job of federal “forestry technicians” — and why so many of them have been leaving the profession
For more than six years, filmmaker Gabriel Kirkpatrick Mann embedded with a crew of wildland firefighters in California whose expertise is working with large, high-priority fires. Referred to as Hotshots, these specialists, managed by a band of agencies including the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management, undergo intensive training and respond to some of the most dangerous fires in the country on behalf of the federal government. While their duties — and the risks they take on — are the same as firefighters, these first responders are technically called “forestry technicians.”
This is something Mann, who spent years working as a director of photography and crew member in Hollywood, highlights in his 2023 documentary and directorial debut, Hotshot (available to stream on Amazon Prime, Apple, and the film’s own website).
“It destroys them,” Mann says of the all-consuming and extremely dangerous work. “They have this fatalistic approach to their job, but they keep going. The same thing happened to me in terms of just wanting to capture it.”
According to the documentary, there are a total of 115 Hotshot crews in the United States, with about 20-25 people per crew. Forty-nine of those crews are operating in the state of California alone, with five dedicated to the Angeles National Forest — highlighting how wildfires are a significant threat in Southern California. The Hotshots’ primary duties involve fire suppression, which means they’re tasked with removing vegetation, brush, and other obstacles that promote the spread of wildfire in extreme terrain. They also work hand-in-hand with regional and local firefighters to battle major blazes, typically receiving a fraction of the wages and benefits granted to their counterparts. According to ZipRecruiter, the average annual salary for a forestry technician is $41,000.
Phil Donlon, who produced Hotshot (and also acts on NBC’s Chicago Fire) tells Rolling Stone that the documentary team hopes to bring those issues to the forefront and create change for Hotshot crews.
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“What we found when making this documentary is that fire doesn’t have a political bent,” Donlon says. “It doesn’t care whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican, it doesn’t care about your race or your religion. It’s an equal opportunity destroyer. Hopefully through the movie, and maybe even through this catastrophe we’re experiencing right now [in Los Angeles], we can all come together.”
Mann and Donlon spoke to Rolling Stone about what they learned making Hotshot, the California wildfires, and what changes they want to see for forestry technicians on a larger scale.
What motivated you to make this project?
Gabriel Kirkpatrick Mann: I lived in fire country [in the Los Angeles area] so it was all around me, but I also had unique access, which certainly gives you a lot of leverage. Hotshots hate the media. They just want to put their noses down, do the work, and kind of disappear and get the job done deep in the woods. But if you are in the family then they’re automatically a little bit more comfortable with you. There is something called the firebug — something that happens to you when you witness wildfire firsthand that’s hypnotizing. It really does captivate you. I think it taps into something that’s kind of hard to put your finger on, and you get addicted to it. And that certainly happened to me. [But] you spend enough time out there over years and years when you see the same pattern repeating itself, and you see thousands of homes burn and thousands of cars and animals and people suffer, it starts to really wear you down. The film is meant to try to convey that feeling of fire season.
Can you explain the difference between a firefighter and a forestry technician?
GKM: “Forestry technician” is a label that’s applied to people who do wildland firefighter duties in the Forest Service under federal employment. Their duties are no different from any other firefighter in a municipal agency or in Cal Fire [the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection] but there’s this bureaucratic loophole that allows the feds to not treat them like firefighters. They don’t get the same kind of hazard pay [additional compensation for working during extreme, hazardous conditions] that their partner agencies would get and ultimately their base pay is about one third of what their partner agencies are. For example, when you have a fire in the Angeles National Forest, you’re going to have both L.A. County responding and the Angeles Forest responding. They’re working side by side. But the L.A. County guys are getting paid three times as much to do the exact same work.
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To watch their agency continue to refer to them as forestry technicians and not honor them as firefighters, as petty as that may sound, there’s something about that that really does affect them deeply. Where it strikes the deepest is at the funerals. When they see some of their compatriots dying and then all of a sudden the agency refers to them as “our beloved firefighter,” but when it comes to their paycheck, it’s like, “Fuck you, ‘forestry technician.’” There’s a line in the documentary where one of the forestry technicians says, “They’ll only call you a firefighter when you die.” That just is heartbreaking, man. That cut to the core of me when I heard that, because it’s so morbid it’s really hard to wrap your brain around.
In light of these hardships, what do you think motivates people to become forestry technicians?
GKM: Young men are attracted to challenges and danger. It’s just an intractable reality of being a male. And some females, too. They just really, really love to be challenged. But the other thing that I’ve come to notice, some people have this gene, they are compelled to serve. It is a compulsion. It’s not a thought. It is not an active interest that they have. It is like an addiction, and they will endure so much abuse because they feel this calling to serve their country and serve their community. You see a lot of veterans transition into wildland fire because those guys are like, “My body doesn’t mean anything, I need to throw it away for my community. That’s what I’m here to do.” It really is a unique trait to them that’s intractable. It’s this weird compulsion to serve and I think they relish and sort of take a lot of pride in how much they have to endure.
What kind of changes do you want to see for forestry technicians?
GKM: Firefighters are probably the most exalted profession in our country and in our culture, and that’s for a reason. It’s a selfless act of service and risking your life. So for forestry technicians to be treated bureaucratically like they’re not out there dying and risking their lives by doing the job, there’s just something devastating about that and something I felt was important to highlight.
We need to stop the hemorrhaging of the federal wildland workforce. We’ve lost over 40 percent of the workforce in just a couple of years, and a huge part of it is the pay. We need to update their pay so they can afford to live in the places where they protect. There’s the Tim Hart Act [advocating for the pay and benefits of federal wildland firefighters] and the Wildland Firefighter Paycheck Protection Act [which would establish a specialized pay schedule for wildlife firefighters]. Those need to be passed immediately. Firefighters have this colloquialism: They’ll say, “We get paid in sunsets, the view really makes it worthwhile.” But we’ve invested millions in training these veteran forestry technicians and we’re losing them all because they can’t afford it anymore, and so then we have to start fresh with new guys. This gets more people killed because you have less experience on every crew. So we need to stop the bleeding with the workforce and get them paid. We also need to get very serious about large scale firing operations. We need to burn millions of acres. Until California can adopt that mentality, nothing’s going to change.
Gabriel Mann
In the documentary, you talk about how the media sensationalizes wildfires in their coverage and call it “fire porn.” What do you think the line is between newsworthiness and fire porn?
GKM: There is a very thin and maybe subjective line. Ultimately, I was out there filming it, too. I think the real dividing line is the quality of information, the time and effort taken to really understand the subject matter, to understand the people in it, to listen to them, and convey it accurately. The reason it’s fire porn is because it’s just indulgent sensationalism, and the quality of the information is not good. One of the biggest issues with wildfires is retaining forestry technicians because of the shitty work conditions, so how is this not front and center in the coverage?
Phil Donlon: But also, everyone’s watching it. It’s like dopamine. You can’t stop. The news will be like, “Here’s Dennis Quaid pulling shit out of his house.” Even though a lot of people are watching the documentary right now, a lot of my friends in California are saying, “I can’t watch it right now, because I’m watching my television 24 hours a day.” This news coverage is freaking people out. There’s maybe a nugget or two of valuable information in there but most of it is fear-based stuff.
Given your experience making this documentary, what do you think people should be thinking about right now when it comes to the wildfires in Los Angeles?
PD: I certainly think people should get involved locally right away. It’s important to get involved locally and at the state and county level. I don’t necessarily mean getting [L.A. Mayor] Karen Bass out of office. I’m talking about getting prescribed burn programs, getting proactive as a community, and clearing your brush, because if you clear your brush but your neighbor doesn’t, then there is no impact.
GKM: Understanding your environment is critical, and you have to take agency over your own space. You have to take personal responsibility. That means cleaning your gutters and getting rid of the brush around your property. If you want to live in this environment where fire is a permanent part of the ecosystem, you have to accept it.
What do you hope viewers take away from the documentary?
GKM: I hope viewers take away what I took away from the experience of making the film: There is beauty in the raw power of nature and there’s this dichotomy of destruction as well as rebirth and regeneration.
PD: We wanted to make a picture that you could enjoy as you would enjoy any movie. The best thing for me is when you leave a picture and are inspired to have a conversation, no matter how difficult the subject matter might be.