Firefighter documentary has Brandon connection

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This article was published 22/11/2021 (1392 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When Panayioti Yannitsos needed to get away from the hustle and bustle of Vancouver to start editing his latest documentary, he picked his wife Brittany’s hometown as the right place to do it.

Two years after spending the summer of 2019 getting the film’s post-production off the ground in an office on Rosser Avenue in Brandon, the completed project is making its way through theatres across North America, with a Wheat City screening on the horizon.

“Florian’s Knights” is a 104-minute look into how firefighters across the United States and Canada have taken to forming motorcycle clubs to help deal with the post-traumatic stress disorder that comes from working as a first responder.

Speaking to the Sun from his home in Fort Langley, B.C., on Sunday, Yannitsos said that one of the hardest parts of making the film was earning the trust of firefighters in cities like Vancouver, New York, Detroit and Toronto.

Once he convinced firefighters to let his film crew follow them, they captured footage of structure fires in Detroit, devastating wildfires in California and the stresses of being on call for days at a time.

A moment that has stuck with Yannitsos since the filming was a 24-hour stint with firefighters in Toronto who dealt with more than 20 overdoses that night.

The first the filmmaker heard of firefighter motorcycle clubs was three and a half years ago when a club made the news in the Vancouver area.

That club, Florian’s Knights, is the namesake for the film. After the original club in British Columbia, a group of firefighters in New York has become a second official chapter of the organization.

The first responders who ride motorcycles refer to it as “wind therapy.”

“It’s that sense that you are so focused on riding a motorcycle — because it’s a dangerous mode of transportation, there’s no doubt — with the amount of focus it takes to ride and to do it safely, you’re able to let go of the other thoughts and trauma that you’ve been thinking about for the other 12 hours a day,” Yannitsos said. “Even just a 20-minute ride allows you to think of just one thing, whether it’s the ride or the road or the scenery that you’re going by … it lets you let go a bit of some of your day-to-day issues.”

The documentary also deals with the stigma of being in a motorcycle club — something that is frequently associated with criminals in the public’s consciousness.

“When you’re wearing leathers and a patch on your back, there is a perception within the public that not only are you trying to be intimidating, but there are also links to the darker side of the biker world,” Yannitsos said. “First responders are not excluded from having to deal with a stigma like that.”

While filming, the crew didn’t see anything untoward from the motorcycle clubs they followed, and the hope is that the film will help address misconceptions surrounding them.

After filming footage for years, Yannitsos said figuring out where to start with the editing process was a daunting thought. He got the idea to go somewhere quieter than the Vancouver area and eventually decided on the Wheat City, his wife’s hometown.

Forgoing his production studio for a small office on Rosser Avenue above the former Dunes Relaxed Fashions Manitoba store led some of his colleagues to wonder what he was thinking.

“I was overwhelmed by the amount of information we had at our fingertips,” Yannitsos said. “I just needed somewhere to sink in with no distractions for 12 hours a day, ride my bike to work, and that’s what brought us to Brandon.”

When the film hits the silver screen in Brandon on Dec. 6, it will be the 43rd or 44th showing since it debuted in Vancouver on Sept. 9.

The premiere date was chosen to be near the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, which left first responders attending to the events with both physical and emotional injuries.

Yannitsos said he’s gratified that firefighters, especially the ones he worked with for the film, have expressed their appreciation for tackling a topic that has been taboo for a long time.

“Now that we’ve shown it in theatres, we’re seeing these massive groups of first responders who ride come out to the theatre and basically tell us ‘your movie’s been saying what I’ve been trying to say for 30 years,’” he said.

In some fire departments in Northern California, the documentary has been made required viewing for new firefighters being trained.

Tickets for the showing at Brandon’s Landmark Cinemas go on sale this Tuesday. The film will also soon be available for purchase and rental on digital storefronts.

» cslark@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @ColinSlark