Sundance 2022: Fire of Love, Riotsville, USA, La Guerra Civil | Festivals & Awards

Katia and Maurice captured their work, and themselves, in photographs and footage that provide this documentary with its treasure trove of visuals. Hypnotic images of magma bubbling, bursting, the earth ripping open. But they were stars in front of the camera as well—baked into the footage is dry visual comedy that reminds you how much Wes Anderson took from a French documentarian’s eye and wit. Not to mention the intrigue, danger, and adventure that surrounds them. Sara Doser’s “Fire of Love” doesn’t just celebrate them as volcanologists, or devoted lovers, but as extraordinary visual storytellers. 

“Fire of Love” tells the story of their adventures, of finding volcanoes and documenting them. This tribute is a mostly peaceful, meditative experience, with death just below the surface—early into the film, it talks about how they would pass during one of their expeditions, but leaves that alone until later. Doser treats the story with immense care, and her multi-frame collages, montages, and plentiful bursts of natural humor are complemented by a score from Air’s Nicolas Godin that adds to its sincere whimsy. Forming a type of love letter to a couple that we know from the past, the narration read by Miranda July makes you appreciate each wistful stanza (“Alone they can only dream of volcanoes; together, they can reach them.”) How special when a documentary can give you ways to appreciate volcanoes, and also a healthy relationship. 

In a manner that one can imagine would make Katia and Maurice proud, the documentary passes along information about volcanoes—the safer red ones, the dangerous grey ones; the difference between magma and lava—but through its observational approach. This has to be one of the most heartwarming movies about scientists ever made, especially as it always honors the red-hot nature in their shared passion.  

“Riotsville, USA,” a documentary screening in the festival’s experimental NEXT category, is made entirely of archival footage recorded by the US military and for news broadcasts from the late 1960s. Its images reflect back on us, as Sierra Pettengill (credited as director and archival researcher) gives us a carefully curated tour through the American police credo of “law and order.” Such “law and order” is represented with a stark microcosm—a fake main street created by the military, to practice riot control and stoke fires of police power.