Arts & Culture
Art, activism, and ecosexuality converge in Beth Stephens’ new film, Playing with Fire
Playing with Fire: An Ecosexual Emergency, the latest film by UC Santa Cruz professor Beth Stephens and Annie Sprinkle, premiered at Frameline 49, blending queer sexuality, environmental activism, and performance art to explore our intimate relationship with fire and the climate crisis.
Key takeaways
- The film reimagines fire not as a threat but as a powerful element deserving of connection, care, and sensual engagement—challenging traditional environmental narratives.
- Set against the backdrop of California wildfires and climate change, the documentary features interviews with firefighters, scientists, artists, and Indigenous leaders, as well as performances by students and faculty.
Beth Stephens, professor of art at UC Santa Cruz and a pioneering voice in the ecosexual movement, celebrated the world premiere of her latest feature film, Playing with Fire: An Ecosexual Emergency.
Co-directed with longtime creative partner Annie Sprinkle, Playing with Fire is a bold, visually rich documentary that fuses environmental advocacy, queer sexuality, and performance art into what the duo describes as “a love poem to fire that engages art, activism and offers advice for navigating our current times.” The film debuted June 20 in San Francisco at the Roxie Theater as part of Frameline 49, the longest-running and largest LGBTQ+ film festival in the world.
Bracketed between two destructive fires (the Santa Cruz CZU and Los Angeles), the film follows Stephens and Sprinkle as they experience California landscapes severely impacted by wildfire, heatwaves, and climate change. Throughout the film, they engage with firefighters, scientists, artists, ecologists, and Indigenous leaders, weaving together interviews, performances, and personal reflection to explore how intimacy and sensuality can deepen our relationship with the Earth.
“Rather than addressing fire based on fear alone, we invite viewers to feel connection, pleasure, and a sense of responsibility to this powerful element through love and humor,” said Stephens, whose work in ecosexuality has earned international attention and academic recognition. “Playing with Fire is about caring for the planet as if it were a lover, not a mother—or a machine.”
The film also features performances by collaborators who have worked on previous ecosexual projects, including UC Santa Cruz students, faculty and alumni. The duo’s past works have been featured at documenta, the Venice Biennale, the Reina Sophia Museum and in academic curricula around the world.
Stephens has a long history of blending art, autobiography, and environmental activism. Since the 1990s, she has staged original performance pieces, created visual artworks and made films rooted in personal narrative and experimental form. In collaboration with Sprinkle, Stephens has produced two award-winning feature-length environmental documentaries: Goodbye Gauley Mountain: An Ecosexual Love Story and Water Makes Us Wet: An Ecosexual Adventure. Together, Stephens and Sprinkle launched the Ecosex Movement in 2008 and their book, Assuming the Ecosexual Position—Earth as Lover, chronicles their radical approach to environmental art and the evolution of their collaborative practice.
Playing with Fire was supported in part by the UC Santa Cruz Arts Research Institute and a Guggenheim Fellowship. A state-wide screening tour is in development, and the filmmakers plan to make the film available to educators and environmental organizations later this year. The film will screen as part of the Santa Cruz Film Festival in October, the exact date and location will be forthcoming. Check out: https://www.santacruzfilmfestivals.org/For more information on Stephens and Sprinkle’s works visit their website: SprinkleStephens.org