Incandescence is an immersive cinematic experience that weaves together on-the-ground footage with extraordinary stories of survival and adaptation that transform our understanding of wildfire.

Returning to the Planet In Focus lineup for the first time since 2013’s Occupy Love, veteran collaborators Nova Ami and Velcrow Ripper have turned their cameras to one of the most potent manifestations of the climate emergency: the wildfires that now ravage our forests and landscapes with frightening regularity. An intense and immersive cinematic experience, Incandescence features on-the-ground footage captured alongside the first responders called upon to battle these hugely destructive blazes. But it also weaves together remarkable accounts of survival and adaptation, endeavoring to transform our understanding of wildfires, their consequences, and how humans might hope to better coexist with this awesome elemental phenomenon. While colonial fire suppression strategies have struggled to cope with our warming planet, Indigenous knowledge keepers demonstrate the controlled burns that First Nations people have traditionally relied upon to regenerate the land. Incandescence seeks to illuminate that timeless cycle of destruction, aftermath, and rebirth. Ami and Ripper also seek to honour the experience of both human and non-human inhabitants, conveying how fire’s potential for destruction might become an equally powerful force for growth and renewal. – PLANET IN FOCUS