A city built around fireworks lights up
“Brimstone and Glory” is a one- of- a- kind documentary about a town and an event that seem completely crazy, at least from an outsider’s perspective. The town is Tultepec, Mexico, and the festival is the National Pyrotechnic Festival, which takes place every March and looks like lightly organized chaos, with everything blowing up on all sides.
Director Viktor Jakovleski films the lead- up to the big event and presents us with a local culture that is built on the making of fireworks. Little children are born into the work, sometimes forced into it by their fathers, against their will. We’re talking about scared, 11- or 12- year- old kids, surrounded by gunpowder, knowing that if they make one mistake, they’re going to lose their fingers — or worse.
We see guys putting together enormous fireworks displays. One guy admits that he’s not a chemist, that he’s more or less winging it. He’s not sure if he’s got enough gunpowder in there, or too much. But, hey, there’s only one way to find out. Meanwhile, women worry about their children. To raise children in Tultepec expecting them to avoid fireworks is like raising kids in the United States expecting them to avoid video games. Or Facebook. Fireworks are in the air there.
The problem with the movie is that you have to really, really be interested in the people of this town to see this as a serious culture. Otherwise, you’re just going to be looking forward to the fireworks scenes. And when they do come, it all looks like mass insanity, with explosions and sparks shooting in all directions, and lots of people standing in the middle of it, shielding their eyes and dancing as things blow up around them.
The biggest features are the bulls — that is, containers shaped like bulls. Fireworks are attached and come shooting out of each one. Everybody seems to enjoy it, except the kid who gets hit right below the eye, or the other kid who gets hit directly in the eye and can’t see out of it.
Though “Brimstone and Glory” is only 67 minutes, it does drag in places. But there are sights here that you probably won’t forget — such as little kids and adults ( mostly men), looking energized and delighted, basking in the light and the noise, when they seemingly should be running away, and fast.