On The Cusp, Longlist - Personal

Inferno

Patrick Fileti

13CO

Inferno delves into the heart and soul of Tultepec, Mexico - a town famous for its pyrotechnics industry. An explosive portrait of the lives of artisans and their families in the lead up to the festival of San Juan de Dios, when blazing revelry engulfs the town. Over 300 giant wooden bulls loaded with fireworks are set alight in the town square as an offering; it's a celebration of explosives for their life giving energy to a town that lives and dies molten in fire. Plunging head into the flames, Inferno honours the spirit and passion of Tultepec’s community in celebrating life and death. Due to the lack of regulations in Tultepec, on average there are 48 deaths each year as well as 180 pyrotechnic related injuries. Fileti enlisted Mexican cinematographer Galo Olivares (Alfonso Cuaron’s DOP on Roma) – to tell the story through the eyes of the townspeople.

With a reputation built on powerful, emotionally charged content, Fileti’s storytelling is driven by a belief that images speak to the soul of the viewer. Fileti works primarily with non-actors to capture life as it is, carefully framed and distilled. His mission is to uncover the beauty in the everyday; to band the emotion and aesthetic around one simple core idea. He plays with the lines between documentary, fiction and experimental cinema to craft films that focus on concepts and feelings above all else.