Afterburn free screening tour
A fire-ravaged scene at Steels Creek from the February 2009 Black Saturday fires. Courtesy Moira Fahy.
Tuesday 16 September 2014
“Afterburn, In the Tiger’s Jaws†follows the stories of three families over three years in one small Victorian community in the aftermath of 2009’s devastating Black Saturday bushfires.
‘Afterburn' is a magnificent achievement!! It is a subtle, rich and reflective portrait of a community and a region with a distinctive ecology and history; a moving and compelling story of three families as they struggle to deal with a crisis and its long shadow; and a very important study of the patterns and experience of trauma. It also has a beautiful and simple power. " - Tom Griffiths, Professor of History, Australian National UniversityOn Black Saturday, the 7th of February 2009, the most lethal firestorm in Australia’s history tore through 78 Victorian communities, killing 173 people. In the wake of the fires, Steels Creek, in Victoria’s Yarra Valley, was a community in crisis and as they began the long task of rebuilding, this community approached a trauma specialist and historians to help them come to terms with the experience of Black Saturday, and to examine how they could learn to live with the legacy of fire. The result is a heart-rending and revealing account of three families facing the devastating effects of trauma and the long shadow of recovery as told by documentary maker Moira Fahy of One Thousand Productions. But they don’t travel this path alone. Dr Rob Gordon walks the journey with them, providing critical analysis and comment in response to the three families’ recovery as he helps them dial down the adrenaline and make sense of the recurring nightmares, panic and tears. Dr Peter Stanley, social and military historian, maps the path of the Kilmore East fire from its ignition point to the time, five hours later, when it explodes out of the Kinglake National Park and destroys Steels Creek. As the fire arrives, the three families weave their own terrifying recollections into Stanley’s account as he recreates the one and a half hours that would forever change their lives. While Dr. Stanley speaks to the present, Prof. Tom Griffiths, a social and environmental historian, Australian National University, speaks to the past and the future. He reminds us that fire, like flood, always returns to the same place and that the great mountain monarchs in the national parks surrounding Steels Creek were waiting for just this day to fulfil their destiny. Catastrophic events such as Black Saturday fracture communities and individuals. People lose their family and neighbours, shockingly and suddenly. They lose the material fabric of their lives, their homes, their possessions, schools & churches. More insidiously, they lose a sense of their own identity and safety. Who are they now in their borrowed clothes standing amongst the ruins of all they have lost? “Afterburn, In the Tiger’s Jaws†is the final piece of the Victorian Bushfire Research Project, a project that seeks to address the gap in understanding of the social, cultural and ecological dimensions of fire experience while also looking at the long-term impact of trauma on these communities.