To shoot their Oscar-contending film Still Standing, directors Víctor Tadashi Suárez and Livia Albeck-Ripka donned hazmat suits – for good reason.
Their documentary, winner of Oscar-qualifying awards at Full Frame, the Seattle International Film Festival, and Aspen Shortsfest, explores homes left toxic by the catastrophic Eaton fire that tore through the Altadena section of Los Angeles in January 2025. That wildfire destroyed thousands of homes in Altadena alone, but owners of homes that survived – the houses still standing – faced an impossible dilemma: should they risk their health to return home?
“To enter toxic homes, we wore
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