PETER FERLAND
Coming of Age Documentary
"Tending Fires” is a documentary about the inner workings of a rite of passage experience created for 7 adolescent boys in the Hudson Valley. It interviews the boys' parents as well as the multi-generational circle of men who helped create it, and it explores the larger themes for community when culture is created.
The rite of passage experience created for the boys asked them to keep a fire going over a twenty-four hour period while alone on a mountain in the Catskills of NY. They had water but no food, electronics or other objects that could distract them from their task. While this experience was a culmination of a wilderness program, most of the boys had never known such isolation -- or as one father puts it "He's never been anything like alone for twenty-four hours."
Interviews include cultural mentor Mark Morey of the Institute for Natural Learning who has facilitated rite of passage experiences for over 20 years, Wilderness Instructor Charles Purvis, and actor and parent Michael Gaston among others. Thank you for your interest in this movie and these coming of age ideas.
"Pitch perfect filmmaking. I just got to see this gem with an audience and people were oo-ing and ah-ing out loud. Me too. The "characters" in this documentary are so brave and human. Watching these parents try to do for their boys what so clearly was not done for them is heartbreaking. And beautiful."
"What a gift this documentary is. I totally agree that young boys need such an experience, and that our culture does not have any such rites of passage built into it. Although we don't have a son, we see our 11 year old daughter grappling with what it means to be young woman, and we see it as an exciting time for her and all of us. Thank you for a very beautiful and thought provoking film."
"One of the fathers in your film struck me as very wise when he said that while he anticipated "drama" among the young men, that it was merely his projection of that drama. To my thinking, your film did not purport a panacea to the challenges of raising adolescents, but more remarked on the value of bringing awareness to the growth of young men."