PRAYER FOR BURNT FORESTS
film, installation, and oral history project
2021-2023
Prayer for Burnt Forests (clip), 1-channel HD video, 14:34m, 2021
Prayer for Burnt Forests is a project extending the ethical imperative of tikkun olam (repairing the world) to include the earth’s right to rest and recuperation after human-caused harm. In collaboration with Rabbi Zach Fredman, Weitz created a prayer intended for recitation in nature as an act of respect, restoration, and genesis. The film features Weitz as a mythological golem traversing recently burned forests on Tongva land in Southern California, performing the prayer as ritual dance.
The film was co-directed with D.S. Chun and commissioned by The Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco as part of Weitz’s solo exhibition GOLEM: A Call to Action (2021-2022), curated by Heidi Rabben and Qianjin Montoya. The exhibition featured three of Weitz’s video artworks that draw on Jewish allegory and spiritual practice to confront societal and ecological disasters.
GOLEM: A Call to Action, Installation views at The Contemporary Jewish Museum, 2021 (Photo credit: Impart Photography).
Prayer Card
Prayer for Burnt Forests was created in collaboration with Rabbi Zach Fredman and designed to be read or recited outdoors, as an offering of respect, restoration, and renewal. Originally written in English, the prayer has been translated into Hebrew, Arabic, and Spanish—which are available for download here.
Like Chaplin’s hallmark satire of capitalism and fascism, Weitz poignantly brushes up against the absurd, and even the profane, to inject some joy into our troubled moment.
My Golem as a Wildland Firefighter, film still, 4:56m, 2021
In 2019, Weitz completed her basic wildland firefighter training at an art residency hosted by UC Berkeley’s Sagehen Creek Field Station in Tahoe National Forest (Washoe lands). A year later, she began collaborating with the Forestry and Fire Recruitment Program (FFRP), where she taught yoga and mindfulness meditation to formerly incarcerated firefighters. Through these classes, Weitz introduced wildland firefighting terminology alongside somatic practices, equipping firefighters with effective, practical methods to manage the intense stresses of fire incidents.
In 2023, Weitz launched Holy Sparks: Interviews with Wildland Firefighters, an oral history project capturing the voices and images of formerly incarcerated firefighters to honor their critical contributions to California’s wildfire response. Commissioned by UC Irvine’s Wildfire Project, this work will be preserved in the UCI Libraries Oral History Collection, celebrating these firefighters' dedication to protecting vulnerable lands and communities.
Holy Sparks, Interview with Jonathan Lopez, Los Angeles, CA, 2023
Holy Sparks, Interview with Antonio del Rio, Los Angeles, CA, 2023
Holy Sparks, Interview with Tyler Lord, Los Angeles, CA, 2023
Weitz teaching yoga to firefighters at FFRP, Pasadena, CA, 2021.
This project was filmed, photographed, and conducted on Tongva Land. To support the rematriation of Tongva, please consider a guest offering to the Tongva Tah-rah’-hat Paxaavxa Conservancy.