A True Crime Story for the Climate Crisis Age In 2018, PG&E’s criminal neglect of its infrastructure destroyed the town of Paradise, killed dozens, and left Californians with vague promises of doing better next time. In the months that followed, a wildfire survivor and a California District Attorney take on one of the country’s largest utilities, uncovering a thick plot of systemic corporate malpractice, flailing bureaucracy, and an existential dilemma at the heart of the climate crisis. Perhaps most notorious as the utility that Erin Brockovich took on in the 90s, PG&E was charged with igniting the most deadly and destructive series of wildfires in California history. And while the fire problem might be unique to California, the tension between for-profit utilities, aging infrastructure, and public safety in the age of rapidly changing climate absolutely is not. The project is all the more prescient right now as Maine is about to hold an election to de-privitize their utilities and also Maui's new utility lawsuits from the wildfires there. Based on the national bestseller by Katherine Blunt, CALIFORNIA BURNING is a documentary about the disastrous state of investor-owned utilities, told through one of the most complex and costly corporation crimes in American history. Leaning into the narrative and characters that Blunt’s book established, this series will build out the case against PG&E like Erin Brockovich would. The doc brings the audience along as we uncover what happened, how PG&E got away with it, and how in the end, we’re all the ones paying the bill.
Directors:
CHLOE GORDON is a LA-based director, writer, and producer.
TATTI RIBEIRO is a journalist, producer and documentarian.
Producer:
JOSHUA THURSTON is an LA based producer.