Review Fix Exclusive: Douglas LeConte Talks ‘Fire of the Final Days’

Review Fix chats with filmmaker Douglas LeConte, who discusses his award-winning film, ”Fire of the Final Days,” at this year’s Queens Film Festival.

Review Fix: What was the inspiration for your film?

Douglas LeConte: ”Fire of the Final Days” was inspired by the Seven Fires Prophecy of the Anishinaabeg people, who live in the Great Lakes region of North America. The augury states that one day humanity will have to make a choice between two divergent paths, one where we continue to neglect the natural world around us leading to the incineration of the planet and one where we will once again live in harmony with the cosmos.  As the Western world has gained in living standards and concomitantly less religious, the scientific deterministic model became the new gospel for the educated and wealthy elites of the 17th century. The Western Newtonian-Cartesian view postulated that the cosmos is essentially a big machine, and that science was separate from the realm of the mind, consciousness, morality, societal rules, and religious rituals. In the last century Quantum mechanics precipitated a philosophical Zeitgeist and suddenly consciousness and the cosmos seem now not to be separate entities at all. However in many ways the economic and political sphere of influence today continues to be fashioned by the premise of this obsolete Newtonian-Cartesian paradigm.  I am convinced that Indigenous cultures – unrestrained by the orthodoxy of this deterministic model – have piercing details about our place in the practical calculus of existence, expressed through their old customs beliefs and values. Desperately few remaining, many of them have been compromised by our lifestyle to various extents. The Earth’s language is spiritual and tenuous, a series of whispers and feelings. It is however also remarkably and shockingly incompatible with the language of exploitation and commercialism. Many of us have completely forgotten that there ever was another language, another possibility.

Review Fix: What did you learn about yourself while making?

LeConte: In hindsight I think I was surprised at how unreserved and forthcoming I became.  During production I contacted numerous people asking them to contribute an interview or some other element to the work.  I developed relationships with many of these people, they had a deep impact on my reshaping my values and world view. Every new element altered the structure of the film so it was always in flux much like when a painter makes marks on a two dimensional surface. That is the way I think and how I work, it was chaotic and unhinging at times but through this process I think I found my voice. I now feel more confident and am ready to try something even more challenging.

Review Fix: What was the most challenging part of making it?

LeConte: Making an Indie film from a remote community like Sioux Lookout is stamped with its own set of inherent challenges.  To maintain a semblance of creativity is always the greatest challenge in artistic practice. Shortfalls in equipment and finances forced me to find innovative ways to produce a micro budget film.

Review Fix: How do you want it to be remembered?

LeConte: In this film I have attempted to instill a sense of cultural reciprocity between indigenous and western values, and maybe in a small way redefine Western Culture’s relationship with the non-human universe.

Review Fix: How does it feel to be a part of the festival?

LeConte: The Queens World Film Festival was awesome.  The venue was spectacular. To be nominated for several awards was thrilling, and to be awarded the cinematography award for a short documentary was beyond the scope of my imagination.

Review Fix: What’s next?

LeConte: There has been discussions with a script writer about a story where two men living in a small remote community and thrown together through a synchronistic series of events discover a plant that allows them to travel to alternate dimensions. In doing so the plant spirit teaches them the medicinal qualities of other plants which they give to community elders in the form of an elixir and which inevitably improves the quality of their lives far beyond the capabilities of modern western medicine.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14230 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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