Festival Focus - Fire Ants
In an alternate future where Covid continued to mutate beyond the capabilities of any vaccine, Martial Law is declared as families are separated and people are forced to remain indoors. Fire Ants tells the story of a collective of children determined to make a difference and speak up for their rights. But it also tells the story of a mother struggling to cope with the isolation of lockdown. Katerina Philippou-Curtis reflects on the stress and pressures many adults faced during lockdown, highlighting how the lack of communication and constant negative news left many of us with little motivation to pursue what we love.
One of the best parts of this film is that it does something incredibly unique. That is, that it incorporates child actors from across the globe through the use of webcams and phone videos. This helps to perfectly illustrate an online collaborative of kids working together to start a revolution, whilst also harking back to the restrictions of the pandemic. What is most unique about this, is that under normal circumstances it’s unlikely all of these children would be able to be in a film together due to the geographical distance, even if there wasn’t any travel restrictions in place. Indeed, Fire Ants uses a truly interesting filming technique which was born out of lockdown restrictions, that few have yet to utilise.
