Hollywood, CA (The Hollywood Times) 6/27/26 – “Come, I’ll show you,” a young boy says as the camera moves toward a suburban home with a green lawn and flowers. He begins describing his backyard. Moments later, we see him carefully making his way through the remains of that same yard, pointing out where everything used to be. In just a few shots, Where We Played: Voices from the Fire tells us exactly whose story this is.
Co-directors Nat Wolff and Austin Cauldwell don’t speak for the children who lived through the 2025 Eaton and Palisades fires. They give them the space to speak for themselves. Its smart that the children aren’t interviewed as victims. They’re treated as narrators.
That choice shapes the entire documentary. The children describe what they remember in the way children often do. They tell us where the swing set stood. They point out a father’s burned car. They explain moving from a motel to an Airbnb. One child proudly shows the stuffed animals that were gathered in the rush to leave. The interviews aren’t produced, polished or set up for dramatic affect. They’re, simple, real and allow us to listen to the kids’ memories attached to places, possessions, routines, and people.
Watching the film, I found myself thinking about the details children choose to remember. As someone who also lost property in the Eaton Fire, I recognized the setting they described. The disintegrated gardens, the lone chimney still standing like a witness. What stayed with me, though, wasn’t the destruction. It was the way the children quietly mapped their lives before and after the fire through ordinary landmarks that suddenly carried extraordinary meaning.
The documentary also gives its young subjects room to ask questions of their own. They share their thoughts about how the fires started, what might have prevented them, and what they hope we will all learn. They talk about temporary schools, new routines, friendships, and the communities helping them rebuild. Hope isn’t presented as a lesson. It simply becomes part of their conversation.
The film’s restraint is one of its greatest strengths. It never asks the children to relive their trauma for the camera. It asks them to remember. There is a difference, and it allows their honesty to come through without feeling manipulated or performative.
Running only nine minutes, Where We Played: Voices from the Fire leaves a lasting impression because it trusts its subjects. There are no sweeping conclusions or emotional cues telling us what to feel. The children simply tell us what happened, what they carried with them, and what they hope comes next.
What comes next for the film is competing for Oscar qualification at Heartland’s Indy Shorts Film Festival
Nat Wolff is a writer/director/actor/producer/musician whose short film Youngest was a HollyShorts Film Festival favorite and praised by Filmmaker Magazine. As an actor, his credits include The Fault in Our Stars, Paper Towns, Palo Alto, The Kill Team, and Amazon’s The Consultant.
Austin Cauldwell is a Los Angeles–based writer, director, actor, and acting teacher. He recently wrote and directed his short film Idyll, which premiered at Florida Film Festival in April 2026. As an actor he appeared in numerous credits on stage, film, and TV.
Mina Sundwall is an Actress/Producer and President of Zenosyne Media. As an actor, her credits include Lost in Space, Murdaugh: Death in the Family, Legends of Tomorrow, God of War: Ragnarok, Maggie’s Plan, and more. As a producer, she works in development and production of films and proofs of concept, including Austin Cauldwell’s Idyll, Ally Ioannides’s Sack of Bones, Gamble, Youth, Jane Anonymous, It Takes a Village.
Eliza Paprin is an Actress/Writer/Producer who studied film as a Dean’s Scholar at Emory University. She is the creator/lead of Not Like Other Girls on YouTube. Other credits include: Lola, Black Girl Day Off, Take Your Time, and Midtown Moments. With her passion for film extending behind the camera, she has served as an Associate Producer on Austin Cauldwell’s Idyll.
Julia Pitch is a Director and DoP signed at Six Twenty Six. She has directed work for commercial clients such as Spotify, Ford, Verizon, Peloton and Starbucks. She was an additional Cinematographer on On the Record, a feature documentary about the Me Too movement that went to Sundance in 2020. Her visual sensibilities are influenced by her fine art background, and she studied Illustration at the Rhode Island School of Design.
“WHERE WE PLAYED: VOICES FROM THE FIRE” will screen on Sunday, July 25th at 2PM at the Living Room Theaters, 745 East 9th Street, Indiannapolis, Indiana 46202.
For more information or to interview the filmmakers, contact Deborah Gilels at L.A. Media Consultants at gilelsdeborah@gmail.com or 818-648-9513.
