There’s a chance to help wildland firefighters and learn more about hotshots at a late February fundraiser in Cody.

On Feb. 22, Big Horn Cinemas will screen “Hotshot” at 4:30 and 7 p.m. Tickets cost $10 and all proceeds benefit the Wildland Firefighter Foundation, which delivers rapid aid to firefighters and their families in their time of need.

Tickets can be purchased at Bighorn Cinemas of Cody, the Richard Realty Cody office at 1239 Rumsey Ave. Cody, or via email at matt@richardrealty.com.

The event is being hosted by Matt Wanner and his fiancé Michelle Koch and is a passion project for Wanner, a real estate agent at Richard Realty who spent more than a decade as a wildland firefighter.

For most of those years he was a member of the Wyoming Hotshots, based out of Greybull.

The movie being shown at the fundraiser, “Hotshot,” is taken from a first-person perspective as director/cinematographer Gabriel Kirkpatrick Mann spent six years training with Hotshots, and following them into the biggest, most destructive infernos that California has ever seen.

Wanner said he and Koch saw some of the movie at a woodlands firefighter symposium in Park City, Utah, and Wanner said it was the “truest interpretation” he’d seen of what it’s really like to be a hotshot.

“Armed with a pack, a fire shelter, and a couple of RED cameras, Gabriel simply walked right into these fires, and the result is a visual feast of the most haunting and spectacular imagery to come out of this epic firefight in the wildlands of the American West,” according to a synopsis of the movie. “With truly unprecedented access, ‘Hotshot’ is a raw, honest, and unflinching emotional rollercoaster of a film that shows the personal and professional sacrifices these brave men and women make, the storied history of these unique firefighting crews, and the devastation they confront on a daily basis. It is a poetic and solemn tribute to one of the most dangerous jobs on earth.”

Watch a trailer for the movie at hotshotmovie.com.

Wanner said he hopes people will come to the movie and appreciate even more wildland firefighters, who many around here know, as well as the organization that does so much to help them, including flying families out to see a wounded firefighter and proving support for family members while they’re at the hospital.

“I’ve known a lot of people who have been positively impacted by the foundation,” he said. “They do a lot of good work for firefighters and their families.”

— By Zac Taylor