Short Film ‘Fire F*cking Fire’ Continues to Set the Festival Circuit Ablaze

Short film Fire F*cking Fire has been enjoying a lovely run on the festival circuit beginning with a New York premiere at Tribeca Film Festival, and a Best Short Film win at Sunscreen Film Festival followed by screenings at LA Shorts, Catalina Film Festival, Out on Film: Atlanta, Athens Film and Video Festival and DC Shorts. SCREEN sat down with lead director and co-writer Julia Eringer to chat about making the film, how the festival run is going and what’s next for the filmmaker.

SCREEN: What inspired you to create Fire Fucking Fire, and what message or emotion did you aim to convey through the film?

JULIA: The idea came when Rachel and I were starring opposite one another, playing lovers in the feature film GOOD KISSER. We were working night shoots in Seattle and, at times, things got a little delirious. Rachel was on Raya, and a pretty famous Rockstar that she’d had a crush on slid into her DMs and invited her to a show. She didn’t end up going because we were working late but we spitballed a scenario about what might have happened – the rockstar was probably a nightmare who would drink tequila for breakfast and cut up your clothes… I went away and wrote the first draft of the short film based on that imaginary scenario.

Before we go any further, let’s take a look at the trailer for this Tribeca fave…

https://vimeo.com/848576041

JULIA: The main emotion of the film is anxiety. And I think it’s really the anxiety around love. Wanting love but not necessarily knowing how to go about getting it or if it will be reciprocated. The anxiety that ensues when the person you love doesn’t or can’t attune to you in the way you want them to. I think that’s an experience a lot of people subconsciously understand from childhood and is recreated in our pursuit of romantic love.

SCREEN: How did you approach the casting process for this film, particularly in finding actors who could embody the raw emotion and vulnerability of the characters?

JULIA: Rachel was always going to be Ally. As soon as I met Rachel I was inspired by her super distinct voice – she’s funny, very direct and dry but at the same time she’s vulnerable and sweet. It’s so fun to write for her and this is the perfect role for her. My manager at the time also represented Calico Cooper, a fantastic actress and real life front woman of heavy metal band, Beasto Blanco. Calico also happens to be Alice Cooper’s daughter. We met with Calico and she was awesome, she had everything we needed and we offered her the role. Jess was harder to cast because the role can be played in so many different ways. The first audition tape we received was Capri’s and no one could quite live up to their bubby, innocent yet deadpan approach so we circled back to them and they won the role. I had Vico in my head when we were coming up with the role of Sam. I was familiar with their work from queer web series These Thems and was just in awe of their talent. We approached them with an offer and luckily they said yes.

SCREEN: The title of the film is striking and provocative. Can you share the significance behind the title and how it reflects the themes explored in the story?

JULIA: Initially the short had an interim title – “Rockstar” which we knew we had to change. I think I just came up with the name FIRE FUCKING FIRE out of nowhere – it just came out of my mouth when we were brainstorming titles. Rachel thought it was hilarious, and from there, we had our band name: FIRE FIRE. That became a lynchpin for the whole short and we worked it, in a lot of different ways. It wasn’t until later when I was really thinking about how poignant and perfect the title was that I realized the significance.  It’s really a movie about what happens when red flags are ignored, they don’t go away, in fact they only burn hotter; suppressing something for so long will eventually create an explosion and someone is going to get burned. And that’s exactly what happens to our protagonist…

SCREEN: Fire Fucking Fire delves into themes of empowerment and self-discovery. What aspects of these themes did you find most compelling to explore as a filmmaker?

JULIA: Empowerment and self-discovery are both incredibly important to me as a filmmaker. My web series GIRLS LIKE MAGIC, explores the first piece of self-discovery – being able to hear the little voice inside us and what we actually want in life. So many people can’t even hear it, you know? They don’t know what they want. Fire Fucking Fire is a graduation from that. The protagonist can hear the voice inside, she knows what she wants and that this situation doesn’t feel good to her but she can’t speak up. The specific piece of empowerment that we are examining in Fire Fucking Fire is boundaries. Ally can feel when Meg is bumping up against her boundaries but she lacks the confidence to say “no” and stand up for herself when those boundaries aren’t being respected. It doesn’t help that Meg is a famous rockstar whose approval Ally so desperately craves. Everything in the film is engineered to heighten the intensity of the experience for our protagonist including Ally’s only “friend” in the film, Jess, who effectively gaslights her, insisting that the situation is great and the only problem here is, in fact, Ally – which is a total friend betrayal. The combination of Meg and Jess means Ally grows more voiceless and more disempowered – becoming smaller and smaller – which is unsustainable, until she reaches a breaking point. Her boundaries can only be ignored for so long.

SCREEN: The visual style of the film is quite arresting, with bold colors and intimate shots. Could you discuss the creative choices behind the cinematography and how it enhances the storytelling?

JULIA: We were very clear about the style of the film from the beginning and worked closely with our DP Tamara Santos to create a visual style that mirrored the de-evolution of the narrative. At the beginning we used long lenses and soft glowy light to illustrate the dreamlike quality of Ally’s idealistic vision of Meg. As the morning progresses, the lenses function to more accurately resemble reality as Ally’s viewpoint becomes more realistic – Meg is not the dream girl Ally imagined her to be. The color becomes more saturated as the red flags around Meg’s behavior burn more red. During the party we used long lenses and a snorricam to give a more surreal sensibility, to mirror the anxiety Ally feels. Saturation levels were high with almost neon greens, blues and reds as Ally’s sense of danger is through the roof. We also used tight shots to convey the invasion of personal space – Meg often shows up, coming into a room in close up which gives the sense that she’s in Ally’s face. I often referred to the film as an “invasion of privacy nightmare,” and I believe we brought that through in the look of the film quite nicely.

SCREEN: Music plays a significant role in setting the tone for the film. How did you collaborate with the composer to develop the soundtrack, and what emotions did you aim to evoke through the music?

JULIA: We ended up electing to use original songs rather than work with a composer on this. Rachel and I worked closely with our editor Alexandria Bombach – who is also an incredible music supervisor with a great ear – to curate the soundtrack. The opening song is by a local Santa Fe singer/songwriter Buglet. We chose this song because it’s a sweet and simple love song about the beginning of a relationship, which directly mirrors Ally’s simple feelings of love and hope when she opens her eyes and sees Meg in her bed for the first time. 

The second song is from another local New Mexico band, Karen. We wanted something that sounded almost like the Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs to create the feeling of wild, reckless abandon and chaos. Meg is a tornado ripping through Ally’s perfectly curated house and this song captured that essence perfectly. We got really lucky with the other two songs which are both by Beasto Blanco. When we met with Calico she told us about a song that the band had recorded and loved, but wasn’t going to make it onto the Beasto Blanco album – Out of Darkness. We listened to it and decided it would be perfect for our party scene to create that out of control feel – at that point in the film, everything has gone f*cking crazy!

SCREEN: The protagonist undergoes a journey of transformation throughout the film. How did you work with the actors to portray this evolution authentically, particularly in capturing moments of vulnerability and strength?

JULIA: I’m a big fan of rehearsals, but I don’t run lines with the actors. Instead, I like to do relationship exercises and have them improvise previous circumstances to develop their characters. I study with Joan Scheckle, and in her classes I learned how to design rehearsals to give the actor an experience of being the character, and of the world they’ll be playing in. So for this film, we worked a lot on overall actions (what the character wants) and their inner and outer obstacles. Having our three main actors together doing this exercise gave me a very clear sense of the  characters and the dynamics between them. It was an anchor for their performances through the whole film. It also kept the actors incredibly grounded as the performances were rooted in something very real so the comedy feels authentic rather than broad. The movie truly is a journey – it begins and ends in very different places – and in rehearsals we identified the distinct emotional beats that this journey was made up of, gave each beat a rhythm and practiced them in order to feel the flow of the journey; to root it in their bodies.

Capturing vulnerability is really important and I think that comes down to trust. We built up a lot of trust as a team. Because I’m an actor first, it is paramount to me that my actors feel comfortable. They need to feel safe to take risks so that they can feel free and go to those vulnerable places. I’d rather film an authentic moment that is there, rather than force an actor into some idea I had in my head as their director. The authentic moment is always going to be more valuable in the long run.

SCREEN: Fire Fucking Fire has been described as a powerful and cathartic viewing experience. What reactions or responses from audiences have stood out to you the most, and why?

JULIA: My gosh. The reactions from audiences that have stood out the most – that it’s a “full experience” and that “it works on a number of levels” and that “it’s a situation that almost everyone can identify with.” Someone said that “even though it’s a comedy and it’s funny that it’s almost like a thriller with the twists and turns.” I love that. We set out to make a movie that was a fun ride so I’m thrilled that these are the sorts of responses we’re getting.

SCREEN: The film explores the concept of stepping into one’s power. Can you share any personal experiences or inspirations that influenced your portrayal of this theme in the story?

JULIA: I’d say that growing up in a house that was somewhat dysfunctional and an environment where I wasn’t attuned to is definitely something that I’m working through in my personal life and also in my art. I’ve often found it hard to stand up for myself or be clear and direct about my boundaries so in a way, Ally is me, failing forward as she learns how to do that. 

I also think there is a correlation to my life as an aspiring actor. I think that there’s something about Ally giving her power away, in a desperate attempt for validation, that mirrors what it can be like in the industry for someone on the periphery who wants in, and is being told no. There’s something about it that can be disempowering because as an actor you need someone to say yes to you. Writing scripts, creating content and making this film is a way to shift out of that dynamic and take my power back.

SCREEN: Lastly, what do you hope viewers take away from Fire Fucking Fire, and how do you envision the impact of the film beyond its runtime?

JULIA: Ultimately this is a fun movie. I hope that audiences have fun, and that they laugh and give themselves over to the ride. Above all, I hope the take-away is that one should think about how they project their fantasies onto other people, or they spend too much time obsessing over things on their phone and they think – “huh, I’m going to be here, now, in my real life and focus on the things that are really important to me rather than giving my power away by seeking to have my desires met by some external force that I can’t control.”

SCREEN: Can we ask what’s next on the agenda for you as a filmmaker?

JULIA: I’m currently putting together a feature film which will be my directorial debut. It’s something that’s been in development for a number of years and a story I’m extremely excited to tell. That’s all I can say for now but watch this space!

This month, Fire F*cking Fire is playing at the Oscar Qualifying Santa Fe International Film Festival, Newport Beach Film Festival and San Jose International Short Film Festival in the U.S., then wrapping up October with its European Premiere at Evolution Mallorca Film Festival on October 31st at 4pm.

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