>1.5°C: Pyropolitics and the New World

In the Age of Fire

In his film >1.5°C: Pyropolitics and the New World, Lukas Marxt captures striking images of the devastating wildfires that struck the Los Angeles area in January 2025. His documentary raises questions about how we are to deal with the consequences of climate change and global warming.

The film opens with a quote from philosopher Michael Marder, who urges us, as we face climate change, to recognize the significance of fire as a force that shapes society. What soon follows are shots of the night sky over Los Angeles, glowing red and arching over the dark silhouette of a mountain range. For a brief moment the scene, bathed in shades of red and black, looks like an abstract painting. But then helicopters cut across the screen and the relentless choreography of the massive wildfire unfolds: white-yellow flames blazing, impenetrable clouds of smoke, the wail of sirens, the clatter of firefighting helicopters, bright red firetrucks, and flashing warning lights. In the midst of all this, firefighters appear again and again, making their way through the treacherous darkness with the aid of headlamps and commands shouted back and forth.

The sounds of the fire are omnipresent: the nervous crackling of the flames, which initially accompanies Marder’s text, gradually intensifies into a cacophony of noise from the firefighting. In some of the film’s sequences, the noise recedes to make way for the distinctive buzzing of chainsaws or the gushing of water used to extinguish the blaze. The soundtrack ends with the crackling of flames, as if the fire were continuing to burn beyond the film itself.

Amidst the inferno, there suddenly appears an image of a large, elegant home standing unscathed, brightly lit in harsh white light: with its artificial icicle decorations and a US flag swaying in the wind, it looks incongruous. This contrasting image may be taken to symbolize a system that is ignoring the rapidly escalating global warming. As Lukas Marxt notes, “As a filmmaker, witnessing the Los Angeles wildfires of early 2025 not only transformed my understanding of the climate crisis, but revealed the political dimensions of disaster.” He views the film not merely as a chronicle of a catastrophe, but as a critical reflection on the West’s unwillingness to change its economic practices.

The camera cuts from the devastation caused by the fire to the hustle and bustle of the emergency shelters, where supplies of water, food, and donated clothing are being piled up. The impromptu order created inside the roomy shelters can hardly conceal the consequences of the catastrophe for the people and animals affected.

After visiting the emergency facilities, the camera returns to burning nighttime streets, until charred ruins and blackened vegetation are visible, extending out into the hazy morning light. Lukas Marxt, who operated the camera alongside co-editor Carson Davis Brown, captures the devastated cityscape in long takes that allow a close examination of the destruction.

The film renders the wildfire catastrophe tangible, and in doing so, it opens our eyes to the realities of the 21st century. >1.5°C: Pyropolitics and the New World lays bare the basic uncertainty that defines this era of climate change as meanwhile, due to its catastrophic fires, it is also coming to be known as the Pyrocene. Ursula Grünenwald