BRIMSTONE & GLORY

Synopsis

The National Pyrotechnic Festival in Tultepec, Mexico is a site of festivity unlike any other in the world. In celebration of San Juan de Dios, patron saint of firework makers, conflagrant revelry engulfs the town for ten days. Artisans show off their technical virtuosity, up-and-comers create their own rowdy, lo-fi combustibles, and dozens of teams build larger-than-life papier-mâché bulls to parade into the town square, adorned with fireworks that blow up in all directions. More than three quarters of Tultepec’s residents work in pyrotechnics, making the festival more than revelry for revelry’s sake.

Director Biography

Viktor Jakovleski, born in West Berlin in 1983, attended the German Film and Television Academy, spent time as a Hollywood personal assistant and driver, and worked with Benh Zeitlin as a co-producer and assistant director on the short film Glory at Sea (2008). He is a producer of LenaLove, which opened in 2016. His documentary feature Brimstone and Glory was produced with the Court 13 collective.