An educator and facilitator, Vivian Vázquez Irizarry ran educational and youth leadership development programs at the Coro Foundation and BronxWorks, and is currently the director of community-school partnerships at the New Settlement Community Campus. Vázquez Irizarry managed educational youth development models in GED completion and college access programs across New York City. A former member of the National Congress for Puerto Rican Rights, she is a member of 52 People for Progress, a community organization that saved her childhood playground and revitalized the South Bronx for the last 35 years.
Gretchen Hildebran is a documentary filmmaker and editor whose work lives at the intersection of politics, policy, and human experience. Her credits include “Worth Saving” and “Out in the Outland.” She has also made a series of short documentaries used to educate communities across the country about life-saving interventions such as needle exchange and overdose prevention.
“Decade of Fire” will screen at the 2019 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival on April 5.
W&H: Describe the film for us in your own words.
VVI: “Decade of Fire” is a people’s story about why the South Bronx burned. It’s a story about housing racial discrimination, displacement, survival, and resistance. “Decade of Fire” is also about hope, and offering inspiration and real-life tools to help people today fight against housing injustice.
GH: In the 1970s, the Bronx was on fire. Abandoned by city government, nearly a half-million people were displaced as their close-knit, multiethnic neighborhood burned, reducing the community to rubble. While insidious government policies caused the devastation, Black and Puerto Rican residents bore the blame. In this story of hope and resistance, Bronx-born Vivian Vazquez [who also directed the film,] exposes the truth about the borough’s untold history and reveals how her embattled and maligned community chose to resist, remain, and rebuild.
“Decade of Fire” tells the story of the South Bronx that you’ve never heard before, and offers us a roadmap for building the communities we want and truly deserve.
W&H: What drew you to this story?
VVI: After a failed attempt to present a curriculum to high school students in the Bronx about their history, my then co-worker Julia Allen and I continued to talk about the fires that destroyed the South Bronx during the 1970s. Julia, who went on to co-produce “Decade of Fire” and Gretchen Hildebran, who went on to co-direct the film with me, encouraged me to share my experiences against the backdrop of government policies and practices that resulted in the Bronx burning for 10 years.
The more I learned about redlining, urban renewal, the closing of fire houses, and cuts to other city services, the more I wanted to challenge the narrative that poor people of color living in cities caused the destruction of their neighborhoods, and the stigma that we don’t know how to take care of our communities. “Decade of Fire” tells a different story – the people of the South Bronx did not destroy the Bronx. In fact, we saved it.
GH: The concept for this film began in 2002 as a curriculum for students at a South Bronx high school, where Julia and Vivian worked together. They noticed how young people in the Bronx carried its stigma, but had little access to its true history. This curriculum was rejected for being “too radical,” but began a dialogue which Vivian and Julia invited me to join, which began a 10-year journey of uncovering and shaping Vivian’s lived history into a compelling story that could reach a broad audience who have never had a chance to glimpse behind the stereotypes that have defined the South Bronx for the last 40 years.
W&H: What do you want people to think about when they are leaving the theater?
VVI: For most of my life, I often heard that we, the Blacks and Puerto Ricans, did not know how to take care of our neighborhoods. That we were to blame for its problems, the reason our neighborhoods turned to ashes and rubble. I’m now aware that my community never had a fair chance to achieve the “American Dream.” We were starved of opportunities and basic services – including protection from deadly fires.
After years of seeing outsiders lay claim to our stories, I needed to tell my own. And this started with painful questions: How is it that we could be written off – left to rot and burn? And how did we survive? I want to share what I learned: People came together and resisted. They stayed and fought and after many years they succeeded in rebuilding their neighborhoods. These unsung heroes put everything on the line to keep their blocks and communities intact. I want to let the world know what they did, how they did it, and why it means everything to us all today.
W&H: What was the biggest challenge in making the film?
VVI: A major challenge for me was demonstrating my own vulnerability of rehashing painful memories of the constant, rampant presence of fires and the friends that I lost. Learning how government policies destroyed my community and the despair, shame, and embarrassment we grew up with of being from the South Bronx was caused by humans making policies that could have been avoided.
Another challenge was the rejections we received from film funders at the beginning of our film project. Frankly, those funders who I felt confident would fund us did not, and those funders I assumed were not interested funded us! Almost every proposal we submitted was a crap shoot. The funders that ended up supporting us have been incredible partners. They have become our critical friends, collaborators, and cheerleaders.
Finally, at times, I felt the long-haul process of filmmaking. When do you really know when the film is complete? What is the right balance between creativity and structure? There was so much to tell in an a finite amount of time.
GH: Making a historical film as a first-time filmmaker was incredibly challenging! The history of any place is deeply complex and complicated — it can reach in so many directions. Every person who lived through that time will have their own idea of why things happened the way they did.
What helped us shape the story at the end of the day was Vivian’s own questions and analysis of what she remembered and what she learned since to try and understand what happened in the Bronx.
Externally, making an historical film is also quite expensive, and made it difficult to share our vision of the film until it was fully articulated in a cut.
W&H: How did you get your film funded? Share some insights into how you got the film made.
VVI & GH: We are deeply grateful for the support of the Ford Foundation’s Just Films, who several years ago saw our trailer and excerpts, met Vivian, and believed in what we were doing before most other funders had faith in our vision. With their support we had the resources to continuing shooting and to re-edit, finally getting close enough to a story that could interest the funders and other folks that came on board later on.
Persistence was key – we applied to many funders multiple times before getting any traction. It’s difficult to move past all that rejection, but every rejection tells you more about what’s working or not in your film, as well as who will be interested in it eventually.
W&H: What inspired you to become a filmmaker?
VVI: “Decade of Fire” is my first film. I never imagined that I would make a film! I have been inspired by the resolve to re-shape the narrative about poor people of color during the 1970s through “Decade of Fire.” Also, the belief that my co-producers Julia, Gretchen, and Neyda Martinez had in me as an important contributor to the process, not just as a protagonist, but as a maker of the film.
GH: I’d been interested in making films since high school and studied film in college at Wesleyan University. But I didn’t really get inspired about what this medium was all about until 2003, when I used my background to create an ad campaign in San Francisco to fight against a ballot measure that would cut general assistance to homeless people. The ballot measure won, but making these ads in collaboration with homeless people — and finding a platform for the voices of people who are typically rendered invisible in our world — was life changing for me.
At the same time I was deeply inspired by “The Pinochet Case” by Patricio Guzman. I had always loved filmmaking but that film and these experiences gave me a motivation to make something that could transform the lives of people participating in the film and for audiences as well.
W&H: What’s the best and worst advice you’ve received?
VVI: Best advice: My mother told me, “Stay true to who you are in making this film. Tell the story you want to tell and don’t worry about what others think,” which is easier said than done. I still worry.
Worst advice: “Talk to the men who worked in government so that they can help legitimize your film.”
GH: Best advice: Pretty much everything I learned in film school.
The worst advice was probably my own idea – that I can do it all myself! I’ve learned the hard way that it’s just not worth it. Filmmaking requires a strong team.
W&H: What advice do you have for other female directors?
VVI: The process is just as important as the outcome. Making a film is a collaborative process that will take you on uncertain paths. Relationship building is critical.
To women of color: telling stories about our communities can help us move forward. There is also a growing number of film production organizations that are supporting women of color. These can be important spaces of support.
GH: Hard to say, as every female director I’ve met has been completely different. If you’re just getting started you might get dismissed a lot and that definitely discouraged me and a lot of my friends over the years. But the beauty of the documentary world is that there are a ton of incredible and accomplished women-identified directors and producers out there who can be your mentor and cheerleader. Seek them out!
W&H: Name your favorite woman-directed film and why.
VVI: Ava DuVernay is courageous. In “Selma,” DuVernay tells the story of the march between Selma and Montgomery, Alabama with deep love, sensitivity, and respect.
GH: “Beau Travail,” by Claire Denis. It’s an immersive experience. She’s a genius.
W&H: It’s been a little over a year since the reckoning in Hollywood and the global film industry began. What differences have you noticed since the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements launched?
VVI: One can see an increase in an interest in women filmmakers. I would like to see more women of color in the industry. I believe that women can be in the vanguard of opening the field of grant making to support new women filmmakers, financially and through mentoring. Women are beginning to power forward in creating greater equity among women, and I feel excited for the future.
GH: The differences I’ve noticed are mostly internal. I’ve been rethinking my own experiences and history with a new perspective not grounded in silence and shame.
