Objective

On January 13, 1998 Alfredo Ormando, a 39-year old Italian writer, arrived in Rome just as the sun was rising. After his long journey from Sicily, he found his way to the empty piazza of the Vatican and, facing the entrance to the Basilica, knelt down as if to pray. He made a rapid hand gesture and suddenly was engulfed in flames. Before the Church and, he hoped, the world, Alfredo Ormando had set himself on fire:

"I hope they'll understand the message I want to leave: it is a form of protest against the Church that demonizes homosexuality, and at the same time all of nature, because homosexuality is a child of Mother Nature."

In 2000, the year of the Jubilee, Pope John-Paul II exhorted his followers in the same spot where Alfredo Ormando had set himself on fire two years prior, telling them that homosexuality was "unnatural," and that the Church had a "duty to distinguish between good and evil."

In 2005, the new Pope Benedict committed himself to even harsher anti-gay teachings, initiating what some see as a gay witchhunt within the Catholic clergy, fighting same-sex partnership legislation worldover, and sending the message that homosexuals have no place in God's kingdom.

A one-hour documentary, ALFREDO'S FIRE brings to life the man behind the flames and the issues his fire illuminates. The film exposes tensions between faith and homosexuality; conformity and individuality; and shows the deadly consequences of religious intolerance.

ALFREDO'S FIRE takes on an issue often lost in the gay and lesbian liberation struggle: the relationship between anti-gay discrimination and religious intolerance--and, ironically, the importance of spiritual expression. A questionable martyr, with the light of a match Alfredo connected a history of persecution and self-annihilation to a hope for communion. The fire that consumed Alfredo is the same that illuminated him, allowing him to be seen in a society that would rather not see. It was a fire, Alfredo believed, that would join him with a God in whose image he could never be seen while alive.

Representing both the lighting and extinguishing of a life force, fire is a perfect leitmotif for exploring the issue of homosexuality and religion. It is simultaneously communion with an elusive God, an expression of pent-up passion and rage, a coming out, a purification, self-annihilation, and liberation — feelings or ideals experienced by gays and lesbians worldwide. Recalling the burnings-at-the-stake of homosexuals by the Church in the Middle Ages, Alfredo's fire, like the namesake film, is both a memorial and protestation. Never again.

By showing the life and death of one man at once drawn to and repelled by his deepest longings, the film puts into relief contemporary issues regarding faith and sexuality. Several documentaries have been made on gay subjects. Usually they are focused on cases of homophobia, discrimination, or liberationògays as victims or victors. Disinterested in such dualities or merely "religion bashing," we want to explore the nature of the oppression — but also the responsibility of being different in society. Moreover, what are the enduring, life-giving qualities of spiritual connection, and how can its absence cripple? Instead of glorifying Alfredo's action, we see his story as a touchstone and mirror.

The fire that Alfredo ignited is emblematic of the struggle for acceptance of gays and lesbians in religious and social institutions, but also of the universal drive to better oneself, and to be seen and accepted in spite of personal difference. In reassembling the tattered existence of one man, ALFREDO'S FIRE offers a spark of hope and compassion--a flame by which to remember, witness, and come out of the dark.