SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL — The films featured at this showcase for indie cinema each year are chosen for various reasons. Whether for their original storytelling, unwavering bravery or for a million other very good motivations, the films bring something to the table (beyond good filmmaking, of course), and to cultural discussions at large. Films can also be chosen for their relevance to present society. But as much as Max Walker-Silverman’s film, “Rebuilding,” is inherently relevant to today’s world, there was no predicting exactly how pertinent it would be, come its premiere on Jan. 26.
What do you do in the wake of a devastating wildfire that tears apart your home and community? This is not a rhetorical question. It’s one that hundreds of thousands of people across the world have had to ask themselves, including, of course, residents of the Pacific Palisades, Altadena and other areas affected by the recent fires in Los Angeles. It’s also a question that’s becoming increasingly prevalent, as climate change-related ecological disasters become all too frequent.
“Rebuilding” does not seek to definitively answer this question. It does, however, provide a valuable perspective.
After a massive fire destroys Dusty’s (Josh O’Connor) land in Colorado, as well as numerous other homes in the area, the rancher is at a loose end. He could go up to his cousin’s ranch in Montana to see if she needs help, but that would mean leaving behind his old plot and his daughter Callie Rose (Lily LaTorre) — with whom he has a distant relationship. The decision is at least temporarily taken out of his hands, though, when Callie Rose’s mother, Ruby (Meghann Fahy), forces Dusty to spend time with their daughter, a choice that further exacerbates the conundrum he faces.
Dusty is an incredibly reticent character — to the point where for the first few shots in the film’s opening scene, only the back of his head is visible. He clearly has thoughts, it just takes the events of the film (and Callie Rose’s presence, in particular) for him to voice them. Albeit in a completely different context, Dusty is almost reminiscent of O’Connor’s previous role as Johnny in “God’s Own Country” — a Sundance premiere in 2017 — and not just for the fact that both films feature a livestock auction in their first few minutes.
They’re both characters who feel the events of the world and their lives very deeply, but are not predisposed to express those feelings. A key place they differ, however, is in their approaches to the world. Where Johnny’s youth creates an immaturity in the way he exists (that he must grow out of), Dusty’s grounding in his work and his care for people makes him a profoundly empathetic character. When Dusty speaks — and he certainly does speak more as the film progresses — it matters. O’Connor’s performance of certain lines, which from a lesser actor would feel trite, instead come across as meditative and appropriately weighty.
One of the strongest aspects of “Rebuilding” is its emphasis on community. When Dusty first moves into a FEMA-provided trailer, he and Callie Rose spot a neighbor across the way. Callie Rose comments on this fact, but Dusty dismisses it, saying that they’re not really his neighbors. The FEMA trailer park (or circle, rather) is the most permanent place Dusty has lived since the fire, yet he feels hugely apart from it and what it represents. The people around him have lost everything — in Mila’s (Kali Reis) case, even people. Dusty might have sold his cattle, lost his childhood home, his mother’s fiddle and his daughter’s artwork, but he still has his horse and some kind of attachment to the world nearby. He still has his burial site on the blackened patch of his former-ranch, which, with its iron fencing and stone headstones, withstood the flames.
Notably, the idea of community in “Rebuilding” is built-in from the start, even before Dusty becomes aware of it. From the livestock auctioneer noting to his audience that Dusty is “going through a hard time,” to a woman in the library parking lot helping Dusty connect to the wifi so that Callie Rose can do her homework, the people — strangers, really — surrounding Dusty are looking out for him and each other, perhaps not even realizing the power of their actions themselves.
Eventually, through Callie Rose just being herself and Mila’s forced but warm welcoming into the trailer community, Dusty opens up. During one dinner, everyone goes around the table naming something they lost in the fire that they wish they still had. Pressed flowers for some, photos for others. At Dusty’s turn (after Callie Rose’s encouragement), he thinks for a moment. Sure, there are the physical, nostalgic items that he didn’t think to grab in his rush out the door. But even beyond those, there are the smaller, maybe more everyday items that one just doesn’t think about in the moment. The things that spark memories or feelings. Thinking about that, Dusty says, “makes me feel like there are things we lost that I’ll never remember” — things he’s already forgotten.
The underlying emotion of “Rebuilding” rises and falls, a carefully constructed ebb-and-flow that will undoubtedly have audiences engaged and emotional themselves. This rhythm is purposeful, and Walker-Silverman said in the Q&A following a Jan. 30 screening that he hopes that the film makes people have “tears and smiles all mixed up.”
The presence of “Rebuilding” at the 2025 Sundance festival is notable not only for its power as a film, but also for the fact that its premiere came while the L.A. fires were still not entirely contained. Hauntingly fresh in everyone’s minds, Walker-Silverman recalled the “touching” and “overwhelming” conversations he had with people at Sundance — conversations stirred by his film. He said he noticed “the strange and beautiful hopes people have” about the “future and past,” and how those hopes lead to a “heavy present.”
Walker-Silverman also emphasized that he won’t presume to have made a film that can speak to the people affected by these natural disasters, yet if some sliver of connection is made as a result of his work, he’s honored and more than happy.
Perhaps one of the greatest strengths of “Rebuilding” is its conscious choice to be hopeful. Over and over again, when Dusty, et al., are faced with a difficult decision, they choose to help each other, even if they are put in a tough spot. If Dusty’s quietly profound statement about the things they lost in the fire is missed, the end of the film being set to John Prine’s song, “How Lucky,” really drives the point home. “There was all these things that I don’t think I remember,” Prine sings. “Hey, how lucky can one man get?” And the thing is, you get the sense that despite how much this community has lost, they really do feel lucky to have each other and to be given the opportunity to move forward, together.