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RITUAL OF FIRE

short film

A magical realist short film about a young boy's encounter with a Pagan fire circle in xenophobic Eastern Europe during the lead up to WWI.

This independent film with a strong social message was written and directed by Ryan Uzilevsky in 2005. The film was made during George W. Bushes second term. It was seen as a response to the war crying post 911 america that seemed to suffer from historical amnesia. The escalation of violence in the Arab world, and xenophobia on American soil under the guise of patriotism 

Skydog wanted to tell a story about another time, not that long ago where this line of nationalistic racism became paramount in Eastern Europe ultimately the leading up to catastrophic World War and Genocide. 

DVD Cover Art_2014_F.jpg

THE FILM

THE FRAMES

THE VISUAL CONCEPTS

Concept Art for "Ritual of Fire"

Some of the visual inspiration for the film came from Antonín Kratochvíl's photo-journalism of post communist Eastern Europe, as well as other historic images from the region.

THE INSPIRATION

THE PRODUCTION

Filming took place on location over two weekends in Upstate New York.

Producer, Dustin Highbridge and the rest of the Brooklyn based production team rented school buses as well as the facilities at an off-season summer camp to deal with the rather large cast and crew