FIRE SEASON
2021 · 7m · USA
Directed by Quinn Else
Genres: documentary, essay film, experimental
Tones: contemplative, dark, provocative
Filmmaker Quinn Else went to document California wildfires for a horror film about an arsonist, but discovered something more unsettling: ordinary people standing dangerously close to the destruction, casually filming for social media. The resulting documentary observes how technology and content culture have transformed our relationship to catastrophe, narrated by a synthetic robotic smartphone voice that synthesizes wildfire data from the internet.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
Else went to shoot a horror movie about arson and accidentally made a better horror movie about everyone else standing there filming the fire on their phones — that pivot is the whole point.
Quinn Else's California wildfire essay narrated by a robotic smartphone voice — the medium of passive catastrophe-consumption narrating the film about that consumption is exactly the kind of conceptual rigor essay film should deliver.
A wildfire documentary narrated by a synthetic smartphone voice reading internet wildfire data — the medium of catastrophe-consumption narrates the film about catastrophe-consumption. Vimeo Staff Pick Premiere; that's a sharp seven minutes.
Festivals
- Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival 2022
- AFI Fest 2021
- Hot Docs 2022
- Fantastic Fest 2021