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# Fire as Teacher, Partner, and Protest: Beth Stephens and Annie Sprinkle Bring Playing with Fire to NYC
- URL: https://www.inthewake.tv/fire-as-teacher-partner-and-protest-beth-stephens-and-annie-sprinkle-bring-playing-with-fire-to-nyc/
- Published: 2026-09-22T15:11:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-23T11:40:25.000Z
- Description: As the planet continues to face unprecedented ecological transformations, Playing with Fire reminds us that our capacity to love, laugh, grieve, and find pleasure in the natural world is our greatest tool for building a sustainable future.
- Author: IN THE WAKE TV 
- Tags: NYC

When lightning strikes, destruction is often the first thing we anticipate. But for iconic LGBTQ+ performance artists and ecosexual pioneers Beth Stephens and Annie Sprinkle, the infernos that swept through their redwood sanctuary in Northern California became something else entirely: a canvas for grief, renewal, and erotic play.

Their latest documentary feature, *Playing with Fire: An Ecosexual Emergency*, comes to New York City for a special screening engagement on October 10 and 11, 2026, at Anthology Film Archives as part of *The Cinema of Gender Transgression* series. Fresh off its world premiere at Frameline 2025 and an acclaimed international festival run, the film marks the third and final installment in Stephens and Sprinkle's groundbreaking documentary trilogy, following *Goodbye Gauley Mountain* (2013) and *Water Makes Us Wet* (2017).

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/17/1a/171a11af-e20a-40f2-8382-82bff915265e/content/images/2026/09/PLAYING-WITH-FIRE-Film-Still-3-Filmmakers-and-ecosex-pioneers-Beth-Stephens--left--and-Annie-Sprinkle-in-their-redwood-sanctuary-in-Northern-California.-Courtesy-of-E.A.R.T.H.-Lab-SF-2.jpg)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/17/1a/171a11af-e20a-40f2-8382-82bff915265e/content/images/2026/09/PLAYING-WITH-FIRE-Film-Still-16-Albert--film-narrator-and-mythical-white-peacock-of-Bounder-Creek.-Courtesy-of-E.A.R.T.H.-Lab-SF.jpg)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/17/1a/171a11af-e20a-40f2-8382-82bff915265e/content/images/2026/09/PLAYING-WITH-FIRE-Film-Still-13-Photo-by-Annie-Sprinkle.-Courtesy-of-E.A.R.T.H.-Lab-SF-1.jpg)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/17/1a/171a11af-e20a-40f2-8382-82bff915265e/content/images/2026/09/PLAYING-WITH-FIRE-Film-Still-11-Courtesy-of-E.A.R.T.H.-Lab-SF.jpg)

PLAYING WITH FIRE Film Stills Courtesy of E.A.R.T.H. Lab SF
  
  
**Connected Regionally: A Network of Queer and Ecological Resistance**  
Black, queer, and marginalized communities have long understood that struggle, survival, and creative expression do not exist in isolation; they flow across regional boundaries. Stephens and Sprinkle’s work highlights how ecological and social "fires" ripple across interconnected networks.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/17/1a/171a11af-e20a-40f2-8382-82bff915265e/content/images/2026/09/PLAYING-WITH-FIRE-Film-Still-12-Courtesy-of-E.A.R.T.H.-Lab-SF-3.jpg)

The theatrical tour of *Playing with Fire* spans key cultural centers—from Los Angeles and Chicago to NYC, San Francisco, and Santa Cruz—demonstrating how communities across the country share the same urgent conversations around climate justice, bodily autonomy, and pleasure activism. By bringing their Northern California experience to Anthology Film Archives in New York, the filmmakers connect West Coast fire grounds with East Coast artistic and activist traditions. The film serves as a living archive of how queer communities utilize performative rituals—like a ceremonial "Wedding to Fire" by a river—to transform shared trauma into collective power.

**Relevant Nationally: Joy, Pleasure, and Hope in the Face of Crisis**  
While *Playing with Fire* addresses the terrifying realities of the climate crisis, its message resonates nationally because of how it frames the response: not with cynicism or performative outrage, but with radical hope, humor, and joy.  
  
"Fire is one of our greatest teachers," Stephens and Sprinkle share. "It can destroy, but it can also illuminate a path forward.

 In these turbulent times, *Playing with Fire* offers a sense of hope, eco-sensual pleasures, and connection."

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/17/1a/171a11af-e20a-40f2-8382-82bff915265e/content/images/2026/09/PLAYING-WITH-FIRE-Film-Still-15-Filmmakers-and-ecosex-pioneers-Annie-Sprinkle--left--and-Beth-Stephens-in-their-redwood-sanctuary-in-Northern-California.-Photo-by-Barbara-Carrellas.-Courtesy-of-E.A.R.T.H.-Lab-SF.jpg)

PLAYING WITH FIRE Film Stills Courtesy of E.A.R.T.H. Lab SF

  
By reframing the Earth not as a victim or a resource to be exploited, but as a lover and equal partner, Stephens and Sprinkle offer a profound alternative to climate doomism. They invite national audiences to view pleasure activism as a legitimate, potent form of political protest.

**Event & Screening Details:**

- **What:** *Playing with Fire: An Ecosexual Emergency* NYC Screenings (with directors Beth Stephens & Annie Sprinkle in person for Q&As)
- **When:** October 10 & 11, 2026
- **Where:** Anthology Film Archives, New York City (as part of *The Cinema of Gender Transgression* series)
- **Digital Release:** Available on TVOD/SVOD across the US and Canada in November 2026