In the Manner of Smoke

A map, a painting canvas and a notebook: these three flammable objects represent the diversity of ways people relate to nature. In his feature debut In the Manner of Smoke, Armand Yervant Tufenkian observes three people who are preoccupied with the peril facing the natural world: a fire guard in California, a landscape painter in London and himself.

Drawing on his own experience as a fire lookout in the Sequoia National Forest, Tufenkian combines various methods for documenting forest fires. From a tower overlooking the Sierra Nevada, he follows the traces of the devastating Rough Fire of 2015 through photographs. Around 5500 miles away, painter Dan Hays recreates these images in his London studio.

The film moves back and forth between the soft, grainy landscapes of California and the technical, modern studio of the British artist. Meanwhile the filmmaker, his voice at times delivered through a radio connection, recalls both fear and fascination in witnessing the Rough Fire, and reflects on the emergence of surveillance webcams replacing direct, personal observation of the forces of nature.