SECTIONS // OFFICIAL COMPETITION FEATURE LENGTH

The Seventh Fire

Jack Pettibone Riccobono
76' / 2015 / United States of America
Web: www.theseventhfire.com
English
English and spanish subtitled

Audience vote 7.13

When Rob Brown, a Native American gang leader on a remote Indian reservation in Minnesota, is sentenced to prison for a fifth time, he must confront his role in bringing violent drug culture into his beloved Ojibwe community. As Rob reckons with his past, his 17-year-old protégé, Kevin, dreams of the future: becoming the most powerful and feared Native gangster on the reservation. Terrence Malick presents, with Natalie Portman and Chris Eyre as executive producers, this haunting and visually arresting nonfiction film about the Native American gang crisis.

Rob's 37-year story spans 39 foster homes, five trips to prison, and a near lifelong affiliation with the Native Gangster Disciples, a criminal gang that he has helped bring to Pine Point—also known as “P-Town”—a small Native village in northern Minnesota on the White Earth Indian Reservation. Rob is more than a gangster with a long rap sheet; he is also a loving father to his daughter Persephone, and a sharp and sensitive writer who aspires to literary greatness.

On the cusp of his 18th birthday, Kevin finds himself at a different crossroads; he has the opportunity to reconnect with traditional Ojibwe ways, but continues to be pulled towards the criminal lifestyle of his mentor.

The lives of Rob and Kevin present a devastating counter-myth to textbook notions of the American dream, and lay bare the modern-day ramifications of the most overlooked aspects of American history.

Main Festivals & Awards

Berlin International Film Festival 2015 - Berlinale Special

Director's Biography

Jack Pettibone Riccobono (Director, Producer, Writer, DP) has produced and directed a wide range of work across the five boroughs of his native New York City and around the world, from Moscow to Shanghai to Freetown. His narrative film KILLER premiered at New Directors / New Films and won Best Short at the Nantucket Film Festival. His short documentary THE SACRED FOOD, shot on the same reservation as THE SEVENTH FIRE, premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival. Jack received a Discovery Award from the Hollywood Film Festival for his directing work.
A graduate of Harvard’s VES Film Production Program and Werner Herzog’s Rogue Film School, his films have been screened at festivals around the world and at venues including the Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of the American Indian, and the American University in Rome. In 2008, Jack launched the production company All Rites Reserved, dedicated to producing films with global reach that push visual and conceptual boundaries. In 2014, Jack joined the directing roster of The Amoveo Company.
THE SEVENTH FIRE is his first feature documentary.