Brimstone & Glory

Explosive documentary exploring the ecstatic ritual, the danger and the absolute beauty of fireworks, through the National Pyrotechnic Festival in Tultepec, Mexico.

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 and the celebration anchors a way of life built around a generations-old, homegrown business of making fireworks by hand.

“Structured like a fireworks display, with only a handful of small reprieves throughout, Brimstone & Glory naturally builds to a marvelous grand finale.” ~ David Ehrlich, IndieWire.