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The Fire Ceremony II: Metamorphosis

The Fire Ceremony II: Metamorphosis represents an unfolding metamorphosis of elements that are transmuted through fire and water, from ancient ruins to an unknown future. As the ceremony proceeds a sequence of projections bathes the proceedings in a kaleidoscope of changing images and colours, all ultimately dissolved in fiery conflagrations. Beginning with a step through a flaming basement door into a ruined cathedral in central Anatolia, the visual narrative carries us through abandoned ruins and landscapes, to a Equinox ritual burning for Nevruz, the Turkish and Persian New Year, to an idiosyncratic fire ceremony performed by an apprentice yogini, to an imagined post-apocalyptic west coast of British Columbia, Canada.

  • Lisa MacLean
    Director
  • Lisa MacLean
    Producer
  • Project Type:
    Experimental, Short, Web / New Media
  • Genres:
    Art, Experimental, Environmental
  • Runtime:
    8 minutes 23 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    June 20, 2015
  • Production Budget:
    1,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Canada
  • Country of Filming:
    Canada
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
  • LACDA 11 Year Anniversary Represented Artists Exhibit
    Los Angeles, CA
    April 9, 2015
    North American Premiere
  • Burnaby Film Forum
    Burnaby, BC, Canada
    September 25, 2015
    Best Technical Achievement
  • Midnight Sun Art and Film Festival
    Sun Peaks, BC, Canada
    August 8, 2015
  • NYC Independent Film Festival
    New York City, NY, USA
    April 28, 2016
  • Semi Finalist at Best Short Fest, Lanark Co., Ontario, Canada
  • Semi Finalist at Los Angeles Cine Fest
    Los Angeles
    United States
    Semi Finalist
  • Leicester City Film Festival, UK
    Leicester
    United Kingdom
    November 29, 2016
  • 60 Seconds Or Less Video Festival, Maryland, USA
  • Official Selection Cardiff International Film Festival 2017
    Cardiff
    United Kingdom
Director Biography - Lisa MacLean

Lisa MacLean has an MFA in Studio Art and a PhD in Interdisciplinary Studies (Art History, English, and Sociology) from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. She has exhibited her art work and created installations locally, nationally, and internationally for many years and has been an artist in residence at institutions in Belgium, France, Turkey, and Italy. In addition to teaching in several post-secondary institutions in Canada and producing her own work, Lisa has curated a range of exhibitions and taken part in many collaborative projects. Spanning a variety of disciplines including digital media, photography, video, and mixed media installation, her practice confronts concerns related to cultural and natural history, gender, landscape and the body, architectural space, the environment, and memory.

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Director Statement

The Fire Ceremony II is part of an ongoing series of work prompted by my angry and frustrated response to global lack of action on our ongoing ecological crisis. Every day, it seems, we are confronted by a new species at risk and another thoughtless proposal to drill, rip, disturb, and destroy our ecosphere and its inhabitants, collateral damage in late capitalism’s frenzied consumption of everything. I despair that we no longer seem to have a sense of the interconnectedness of all life, an awareness of humanity’s place within the cosmos, and a respect for the other living beings that share the world with us. Sorrow at vanishing species, anxiety about global climate change, and hope for some new and better human relationship with nature and our fellow beings motivates me. As a small contribution to the fight against environmental desolation and its costs, this body of work is created with hope for a reconfigured way of being on and with the earth.