Filmmaker visits Superior

Last Tuesday, August 10, Filmmaker George Sibley, who is based in Florida, was invited to attend the Mineral County Historical Society Meeting to show his film "Ordeal by Fire."

The film, which is an hour long, examines several aspects and stories that pertain to the 1910 fire. The film examines the history of the fire, but also looks at the current public policy issue.

The film featured interviews with historians and scientists as well as some family stories. Sibley illustrated the film with reenactments, still photographs and newsreels.

Sibley said that like most kids, he made money to go to college by fighting fires.

"This was back in Massachusetts and while the forests and forest fires we get back there are kind of puny compared to the ones here, when you're younger these are still pretty dramatic," Sibley said. "But I got interested in it."

Aside from being directly involved with fires himself, Sibley also recalled a 1949 film that was done about the Mann Gulch Fire. And while he admitted it was Hollywood-ized and some things were wrong, the fact was that it was based on real events.

"The action and adventure and excitement didn't come from people hurting people, but a natural event," Sibley said, "so all of these things led me to be interested in the history of fire, which eventually led me to the 1910 fire."

Sibley said that there were a couple of things that surprised him when he was making the movie. The first one was how many nationalities were involved with the fire.

"There were many new immigrants to America that ended up being part of the fire fight," Sibley said. "I was astounded as to the range of countries and sometimes there must have been a dozen languages on a single fire crew."

Secondly, Sibley said that prior to making the film he had assumed that the fire crews came from the areas where the fires were burning when in reality several men were assembled from other places and often shipped in.

To make the movie, Sibley faced several challenges. It was no easy task for him to gather the historic materials used throughout the film. Sibley poured through film collections at the National Archives in College Park, Maryland, and several regional forest collections from throughout western Montana and into Idaho. Sibley said he used video footage from 1914 as there wasn't any from 1910.

"There were also tons of stories I could have put in so I had to be a bit restrictive," Sibley said. "I chose to go with the story of Edward Pulaski and it's a very dramatic story and it represented so many of the good stories."

In the film, the Pulaski story is the tale that Sibley recreates using actors and filming on sets. He said that it was difficult figuring out what the tunnel truly looked like as well as putting a set together that was filmable. Sibley said it was also hard figuring out how to compress the larger story of the fires into a film that ran the length of an hour.

"The film has something for everybody," Sibley said. "It's got heroism stories, flight and tragedy. The story covers a large scope and as a filmmaker I had to figure out how to compress it down."

Sibley said that he tried to put his own spin on the movie and on the photos, often times inserting flames into the photos. He said the photos worked great because they were so large that he could move around in them. He used film to represent some scenes that had the appearance of what a family may have done upon receiving word of the fire.

"But I also wanted to keep people in the reality of it," Sibley said, "even though some stuff was faked so to speak."

Several interviews with those who had family members that experienced the fire were placed at the end of the film. Of course, these stories were two to three generations removed.

"And every generation loses a little bit," Sibley explained.

Screenings of the film will be taking place in many of commemorative events that will be taking place in towns across western Montana and Idaho this weekend. The Mineral County Museum will have a copy of Sibley's film on hand so if you missed the screening at the meeting, you can still watch the film.