Item
Project

Playing with Fire: An Ecosexual Emergency

Against a painted sky of orange and black smoke, lava pours down a volcano below a snow-capped peak. In front, a white peacock with a long shaggy tail stands beside a black dog in a silver puffer coat, and two people in shining silver, one in a hooded fire suit holding an oversized diamond ring, the other in a sequined gown and dark glasses, pose amid glowing red lava fields.
Title
Playing with Fire: An Ecosexual Emergency
Artist
Annie Sprinkle, Beth Stephens
Collaborators
Jordan Freeman (cinematographer), Diana J. Brodie (editor), Joy Brooke Fairfield (performance director / intimacy coordinator), Keith Wilson (producer), with Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Cassils, Barbara Carrellas, Julie Weitz, Melissa Nelson, Brandon Smith, Lady Monster, Madison Young, Melonie & Melorra Green, Deborah Oak, Courtney Desiree Morris, Dragonfly Diva
Date
2025
Description
A 71-minute documentary that begins when the 2020 CZU Lightning Complex fires force Annie Sprinkle and Beth Stephens to evacuate their home in the Boulder Creek redwoods. From there, the artists approach fire as an element to relate to and care for rather than only fight. Mixing humor, grief and performance art, the film draws on firefighters (including formerly incarcerated firefighters), Indigenous scholars, ecologists, artists and a witch therapist, and part of the narration is voiced by a mythical white peacock named Albert. It connects California's wildfires and climate change to questions of social justice and ends with a ceremonial wedding to fire in the redwoods. It is the third film in the pair's ecosexual series, after Goodbye Gauley Mountain (2014) and Water Makes Us Wet (2019). It premiered at Frameline49 at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco on June 20, 2025.
Artwork Type
Film / Video
Materiality
Video / Digital Video
Climate & Ecology Themes
Fire
Climate Justice
Queer Ecologies
Concepts
More-than-Human Relations
Love and Desire
Loss and Grief
Ecological Domain / Habitat
Redwood Forest
Methods & Approaches
Collaborative / Co-Creation
Storytelling / Narrative Practice
Audience / Engagement Type
Public / General Audience
Location
Premiere: Roxie Theater, 3125 16th Street, San Francisco, California; filmed in and around Boulder Creek, California
Geographic Scope
Statewide
Rights
Rights held by artist or creator
Website
sprinklestephens.ucsc.edu/playing-with-fire
Affiliated Organizations
Wedding to Fire
Publisher
UC Santa Cruz, Department of Art
Discipline / Field
Arts & Design
Environmental Art & Social Practice
Item sets
California Art & Climate Archive
UC Santa Cruz
Media
Against a painted sky of orange and black smoke, lava pours down a volcano below a snow-capped peak. In front, a white peacock with a long shaggy tail stands beside a black dog in a silver puffer coat, and two people in shining silver, one in a hooded fire suit holding an oversized diamond ring, the other in a sequined gown and dark glasses, pose amid glowing red lava fields.Annie Sprinkle and Beth Stephens, Playing with Fire: An Ecosexual Emergency (still)