Genre
Synopsis
Smoke lingers where an entire town burned to the ground. Through the vestiges of chimneys, one house stands, surrounded by gardens. Brad Weldon, running on days of adrenaline, paces the yard. “Just another day in Paradise,” he chuckles, after 24 hours of fighting the most deadly and destructive wildfire in California history, saving his house and protecting his 90-year-old mother.
Over the next two years, Brad’s property becomes the new home to 22 friends and family who lost everything. Brad struggles to maintain order in a community suffering from trauma, addiction and mental health issues. In this 90-minute vérité documentary, NOTHING GOLD CAN STAY explores the personal effects of climate change, alternative rural life and our unavoidable connection to the past.
While most stranded Paradise residents stayed in shelters, Brad’s friend, Lenny McAfee, snuck back into a nearby canyon and built a hut made from gold mine artifacts. Thrilled by the challenge of surviving the winter, he finds kinship in the ghosts of gold miners. “I was born 100 years too late,” he laments. As Lenny searches for gold in re-exposed mines, we see the echoes of what drove thousands of men West in the throes of Manifest Destiny.
After the winter, Brad insists it’s time for Lenny to tear down his shed, forcing Lenny to confront his relationship with society. Does he re-engage with his family, pay his debts and become a part of the community again? Or will he slip further into solitude and the quest for gold?
Brad’s household, bustling and full of drama, is a contrast to Lenny’s solitude. We watch Brad’s journey from single widower and caretaker to the leader of a small community to husband of a new-found love.
But just as new life deepens, the flames of another grueling California wildfire season threaten Brad’s home. How many more traumas can one community withstand? Can we do what is necessary to preserve our planet? Or will we continue to disrespect our home, and in turn destroy ourselves
Bio
Erin Brethauer is an Emmy-Award winning filmmaker and photographer based in San Francisco, CA and Asheville, NC. Her first feature film, Last Men Standing, was co-directed with Tim Hussin, while on staff at the San Francisco Chronicle. The documentary, a first for the newspaper, explores the physical and psychological effects of being a long-term HIV survivor and was screened at major LGBTQ+ film festivals worldwide. The film, along with a weekly video series she co-directed called The Regulars, were awarded regional Emmy Awards. Before moving to the Bay Area, Brethauer was a staff photojournalist in small town newspapers such as the Asheville Citizen-Times in North Carolina for nearly a decade. Both her film and still photography work are recognized by Pictures of the Year International, Magenta Flash Forward, American Photography and can be found in publications such as California Sunday Magazine, National Geographic, The New Yorker and The New York Times.
Her current work explores the personal effects of climate change and life after incarceration. Brethauer is a 2020 SFFILM FilmHouse Resident and is working with Hussin on a feature documentary about a group of residents in Paradise, California following the Camp Fire.
To see her film work, visit www.thislandfilms.com and for her still photography, visit www.erinbrethauer.com.
Credits
Co-Director - Tim Hussin
Cinematographer - Tim Hussin
Editor - Daniel J. Freeman
Composer - Daniel J. Freeman
Cinematographer - Erin Brethauer
