A Real-Life Tragedy Led to an Outpouring of Kindness, and ‘Rebuilding’ Is the Film That Emerged from the Ashes
In Max Walker-Silverman’s “Rebuilding,” Josh O’Connor plays a Colorado rancher who has to adapt to life after a devastating wildfire destroys his home. It’s a film that feels deeply relevant for reasons that require no explanation, but the genesis of the idea came from a tragic experience in Walker-Silverman’s own life that saw the community of his Colorado hometown rally around his family.
“For me, it was born in a summer in which I had just moved home, back to Colorado after being away for a while. It was a tough summer, it was dry, the town felt like it was struggling. It was smokey, there was fires all over,” Walker-Silverman said during a visit to the IndieWire Studio at Sundance, presented by Dropbox. “My grandmother’s house burned that summer, which was devastating, but also became this magical thing that brought the family together in a way, brought our neighbors together in a way. There was loss in that, but also an incredible outpouring of kindness as well. Through that experience, I began to see how there could be a future in what felt like a very uncertain place.”
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In a time when everyone is looking for guidance about how to heal from natural disasters, Walker-Silverman explained that he hopes his film is predictive of a swing towards compassion and optimism from the human race.
“This movie became an effort to imagine what that could look like. Maybe it’s what it will be and maybe it’s what it won’t, but it’s what I hope it will be. And that’s a future where, through the really hard changes that we’re all gonna face, whether they’re fires or floods or anything else, there’s hope that people will come together afterwards.”
O’Connor explained that, given how personal the material was to his director, it was impossible to separate the narrative from the Colorado landscape in which they shot.
“For me, it’s always just about how you can fit yourself into an environment that you’re character is in. Fortunately, on this project, Max has such a great understanding of the landscape and the area,” O’Connor said. “We shot continuously. All the stuff that takes place in the FEMA camp was continuous. So we were in this one location for two weeks… Every person on this film, whether it’s cast, crew, production, we were all in it together. And the came down to these two weeks in this FEMA camp where we were living in the desert and living on top of each other.”
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