In the West, fire isn’t a question of if but when.

The reasons vary. It might be a crushing combination of dry climate, gale-force winds and a small spark that consumes houses whole, or an unprovoked middle-of-the-night inferno that claims businesses and your favorite third place. 

True, you’ll focus on the whys and the hows, but even definitive answers will lack satisfaction. What once was is now no more. The only thing left to do is sweep away the ash and rebuild.

It’s a reality Coloradans know all too well, from the 2020 Cal-Wood Fire to the 2021 Marshall Fire and the 2025 Caribou Village Shopping Center Fire. It’s also the reality at the heart of Rebuilding—the latest family drama from Colorado’s Max Walker-Silverman—a movie born from ash, after the house of the writer-director’s grandmother burned in a fire.

“I had a basic view of the characters and a few little dynamics that were kicking around for a while,” the 32-year-old filmmaker says. Then came the fire, “the catalyzing event for the real propulsion of the story.”

For this month’s issue of Caribou Current, I spoke with filmmaker Walker-Silverman about his latest, Rebuilding, a timely movie with a even timelier premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival.