Presented by VTIFF & Vermont PBS
Host Sponsor: Main Street Landing
Directed by Vivian Vázquez Irizarry, Gretchen Hildebran, and Julia Steele Allen
54 mins | Documentary | English and Spanish w/English subtitles
Followed by Q&A with director Gretchen Hildebrand*, moderated by Eric Ford, Director of Programming at Vermont PBS
In the 1970s, fires raged through the South Bronx. Abandoned by landlords and city
officials, nearly a half million residents were displaced from their beloved neighborhood. With the help of fellow
survivors, filmmaker and Bronx native Vivian Vázquez Irizarry tells the story of the residents who banded
together amidst the rubble and built a better future for their community.
*** Sunday Best screenings are FREE with a suggested donation of $5. We urge you to book in advance.
*Gretchen Hildebran is a documentary filmmaker whose work lives at the intersection of politics, policy and human experience. A graduate of Stanford’s documentary program, her credits include: Worth Saving (2004), about drugs users in San Francisco taking action to save each other’s lives, which was presented in HBO’s Frame by Frame showcase, and Out in the Heartland (2005) about 3 sets of gay parents facing down churches and family in the wake of anti-gay legislation in Kentucky. Gretchen filmed Ramona Diaz’s The Learning (2011) and has edited independent documentaries and for the History Channel, PBS and the United Nations Development Programme. She has also made several short documentaries used to educate local communities across the country about life-saving public health interventions such as needle exchange and overdose prevention. Gretchen grew up in Vermont and Decade of Fire is her first feature film.