Bastrop: A Community in Recovery Film Pitch

by James Headrick
(Austin, Texas, USA)

The 2011 Labor Day weekend in Texas will remain a painful memory for thousands of families who lost their homes to the devastating wildfires. While many fires raged out of control across Texas, the community of Bastrop was hit the hardest with over 1,600 homes destroyed. Thousands of volunteers and aid organizations flooded the community and have been assisting in the recovery process, which will take years to complete.

The documentary titled “Bastrop: A Community In Recovery” will be released on the first anniversary of the fires to bring continued awareness to impact and the continued recovery efforts on the ground. The goal of the film is to raise awareness of continuing recovery efforts on both a local and national level.
Over the next seven months, student filmmakers will explore and tell the story of the victims and the heroes of Bastrop. In this feature-length documentary, we will be following several families as they continue to live and attempt to rebuild their lives. Second we will be interviewing the men and women of the local police and fire departments as they recount their experiences and struggles on the ground. We will also be riding along with those working to clean up the destruction and document the daily efforts to restore Bastrop to normality.

The film budget is $10,000 to cover equipment, travel, and meals for the seven months of production time. Crew will be traveling from Austin, Texas to Bastrop for each shoot. The filmmakers are students at Concordia University, operating under the production company name of Empty Net Media.

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