Films: Nothing Gold Can Stay (feature)

FEATURE FILM IN PRODUCTION 

Two longtime friends react to narrowly surviving California’s deadliest wildfire in divergent ways. One manifests an outsider oasis of 22 friends and family amid the ruins of their hometown in Paradise, while the other rejects society and builds a tin shed at the bottom of a canyon to live his fantasy of becoming a gold miner. In this feature vérité documentary, Nothing Gold Can Stay offers a rare and intimate view of post-disaster life; one that confronts challenges head on and lets life play out in all its glory and tragedy. 

November 8th marks the fifth anniversary of the Camp Fire, an apocalyptic wildfire that destroyed the towns of Paradise and Concow, California taking with it 85 lives, 18,000 structures and 153,336 acres.  

We began filming in Paradise days after the fire destroyed the town when we met Brad Weldon, a fifth generation Californian who saved his house by fighting the fire with garden hoses and buckets of water from his swimming pool for nearly 24 hours.  

We’ve been following his household and community of friends and family in the years since, watching them create their lives from scratch. 

Erin Brethauer and Tim Hussin / Co-directors and Cinematographers  

Daniel Freeman / Editor  

Fiscal sponsorship from The Redford Center. Please reach out if you'd like to see our trailer or if you're interested in donating to support this independent film.