KQED Arts presents Brian Fies' "A Fire Story," adapted for television with the voices of Brian and his wife. It was produced by Farrin Abbott and Kelly Whalen.
While meeting with artists who lost their homes in the fires, a
common refrain we’ve heard here at KQED is that they’re stymied, stuck,
unable to create — hoping the spark will return once the shock and
confusion passes.
Not Brian Fies. Just one day after his house and everything in it
burned to the ground, the Santa Rosa cartoonist bought some cheap paper,
Sharpies, and highlighters, and got to work reporting what he and his
wife had seen the night of the fires. The resulting cartoon came
quickly, with more raw edges than Fies’ usual standards, but it was
undeniably, unflinchingly honest.
“I still have that newspaper reporter bug — that I’ve got to tell the
story,” Fies says of the comic’s urgency, which included Fies returning
the next morning to find his house in Larkfield destroyed. “I was an
eyewitness to something very unusual, and I felt like I just had to
report it.”
The response was massive. In the week after the fire, an online version of Fies’ comic, A Fire Story, was viewed by over half a million people.
Now, we at KQED Arts bring his story to life in the video [below]. With
moving animation, and with narration straight from Fies and his wife,
Karen, A Fire Story also includes a special epilogue from the artist about the long process of recovery, and the stability of home.
Most meaningful for Fies is the comfort and understanding A Fire Story
has brought to others — people like his neighbor, whose house was also
lost to the fire, and who reads it to her grandchildren every night at
their request.
“It really helps the kids process some of that trauma of what
happened to this house and place they loved. And kind of reassures them,
not now, but someday… we are going to be okay.” – Gabe Meline
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