Four Nights and a Fire
A young Ojibwe photographer stubbornly takes on the responsibility of keeping a sacred fire alive for four consecutive days and nights in mourning for his father. His father’s spirit tries to reach him from the other side.
Interview with Writer/Director/Producer Alex Nystrom
Congratulations! Why did you make your film?
I made Four Nights and a Fire to honor my late father, who passed away far too young to cancer when I was in my 20s. I had taken several years off from filmmaking because of this, on a long journey of grief and learning to grow without somebody so critical to my upbringing, connecting deeper with my Native identity and Ojibwe culture that I lost with him. Over time, I started to crawl back toward the idea of directing another short film, as I had spent a lot of those years sharpening my voice in writing and was ready to see my work go from script to screen. This story felt like the most natural thing I had ever written, and a culmination of my lived experience since I had last done a project like this.
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?
I’m a firm believer that the more specific a story is, the more universal it becomes. Through the lens of Ojibwe tradition, witnessing a son reflecting on his late father and following in his footsteps, while also watching a father mourn what he can no longer do for his son, and seeing how these perspectives intertwine, it takes on a different shape. Yet everyone’s lost someone close to them, grief is universal. Sharing my perspective on grief has opened up space for audiences to reflect on their own experiences with loss, and that’s made this film so much bigger than my own story. It’s just one of those films that feeds off an audience finding their own meaning and relating it to their perspective, which to me is what I think speaks to the power of storytelling, and why we make films in the first place.
How do personal and universal themes work in your film?
Drawing from my personal emotional experiences in my journey of grief, it was certainly a difficult subject matter to navigate. However, a lot of the motivation for this film came at a moment when I was far enough away from the loss of my father to comprehend it better. I was aiming to capture the intense feelings that I had previously, while also taking stock of how far I’d come and ultimately explore where my journey may go, and essentially force myself to sit with these complex feelings and make sense of them. Being a mixed Native and finding personal connections to my Ojibwe heritage was another thread of this film, and this was a way to help me decolonize my worldview on grief and processing loss and honor that too.
How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?
The first iteration of this film started as a poem. I’m by no means a poet, but that medium felt right for allowing the raw and intangible emotions to pour out without having to worry about structuring it in any sort of way. What came out very quickly was not one voice, but two. So then, I began to drift between these two perspectives of the grieving and the grieved, and found that there was a lot of crossover between what both the father and son were feeling, perhaps even in the same moment, which ultimately became the voiceover of this film. Later on, I started to put visual ideas to it and treated it like more of a dance between the two actors so they could feel like they could react to each other’s performance rather than direct them separately. With the actors being a father and son in real life, it also really enhanced the film in many indescribable ways. They drew from their own relationship and experiences together, and found themselves within these characters, and I think it really shows in their nuanced performances.
What type of feedback have you received so far?
We’ve been fortunate to screen in some incredible theaters and have very thoughtful and generous audiences. It’s a very surreal experience to watch in a theater full of people because our film is generally one of the quieter ones in any shorts block, and I think it’s just one of those films that naturally sucks the air out of the room in the best way. In one of our recent screenings, someone told me that the whole film feels like a prayer. I hadn’t thought of it that way, but I think that’s a great way to describe it – a spiritual experience. We were lucky to be selected as a top 5 programmer pick at Palm Springs International Shortfest, specifically for dealing with grief in an engaging way and for our singular visuals. Audiences have really enjoyed the visuals in particular. I tip my hat to our incredibly talented cinematographer Mike Maliwanag, he is such a wonderful collaborator and we really wanted every frame of this film to feel like a painting, and I’m just grateful people have the opportunity to see these visuals on the big screen, we’re really proud of it!
Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?
The feedback hasn’t surprised me as much as it’s been wholly validating in how to approach a project. So much of directing is trust-falling with a group of skilled and passionate people you can be vulnerable with, and having open conversations with every person on how to make the experience as valuable to them as it is for you. I had to really focus on my mental health with this project given how personal it was, and one of my main goals was to create a space that felt safe to create for everyone else just as much for me. I think this mindset really inspired the best work from the whole cast and crew, and I think it shines through in the final film, the care that went into shaping it from start to finish, and that’s what I believe the audience ultimately is responding to.
What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?
My hopes are to continue to build an audience, spread the word about our film, and stimulate conversations about finding resilience in grief. Also, as a Native filmmaker, another goal for this film is to have it steeped in tradition, yet presented in a contemporary context. Native stories are often relegated to the past, and I really wanted to showcase Ojibwe culture as modern, timeless, and ever-relevan
Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?
We feel very lucky to have the festival run we’ve had so far, and I’d say we’ll be about halfway through by the end of the year. We just had our international premiere last week, and are currently seeking a European premiere as well as many other festivals in 2024. We’re also beginning to strategize distribution and a splashy online release next year, so any support in elevating our film in spaces like We Are Moving Stories is extremely helpful in spotlighting our film to help attain the highest platform for audiences to enjoy.
What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?
My hope is for this film to find a permanent home on a widely accessible platform that allows those who need it most, who are on their own journey of grieving, to know that they’re not alone. To honor that it’s okay to sit with their own feelings of grief and spend time with them and that you can define it yourself, not let it define you.
What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?
What is your own journey of grief, and where do you think you are on that journey? Where do you want to see it go?
Would you like to add anything else?
Miigwech (thank you) We Are Moving Stories for sharing your platform with us!
What other projects are the key creatives developing or working on now?
I’m currently writing a feature film that is inspired by this short film, with a bit more of a genre twist. It’s a psychological horror that examines the fear of death and generational memory head-on, through a grandson caring for his dementia-stricken grandmother who are both haunted by the spirit of the father between them.
Interview: November 2023
We Are Moving Stories embraces new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series, music video, women's films, LGBTQIA+, POC, First Nations, scifi, supernatural, horror, world cinema. If you have just made a film - we'd love to hear from you. Or if you know a filmmaker - can you recommend us? More info: Carmela
Four Nights and a Fire
A young Ojibwe photographer stubbornly takes on the responsibility of keeping a sacred fire alive for four consecutive days and nights in mourning for his father. His father’s spirit tries to reach him from the other side.
Length: 12:37
Director: Alex Nystrom
Producer: Alex Nystrom
Writer: Alex Nystrom
About the writer, director and producer:
ALEX NYSTROM is an Ojibwe director, writer and producer who works as a filmmaker in Los Angeles. His pilot script Between was selected for the 2nd annual Indigenous List (2022) on THE BLACK LIST, and his short film Four Nights and a Fire has played several festivals including Palm Springs International Shortfest 2023. He is currently developing a psychological horror feature film script through Native American Media Alliance’s Feature Film Screenwriting Lab 2023.
Key cast: Benny Wayne Sully (Son), Clem Sully (Father/Spirit)
Looking for: distributors, film festival directors
Facebook: Four Nights and a Fire
Instagram: @fournightsandafire
Hashtags used: #fournightsandafire
Made in association with: Pursuit Films, Cherokee Nation Film Office, Terraform Films, Camp Lucky
Funders: Art With Impact, Vision Maker Media, Seed & Spark (https://seedandspark.com/fund/four-nights-and-a-fire#story)
Where can I watch it next and in the coming month?
Indie Memphis/Memphis, TN - 10/28
LA Skins Fest/Los Angeles, CA - 11/16
Cucalorus Film Festival/Wilmington, NC - 11/16 & 11/18