A young tech designer, looking for a way to pursue his true passion in film, crosses paths with a charismatic content producer and is lured into a Virtual Reality collective that is much darker and more salacious than he anticipates.

Director’s Statement

How do we stay present amidst the constant beckoning of screens and devices to engage our attention? How do we define interfacing in relationships that are divorced from physical, even vocal, presence and reduced to the transmission of digital information? What will define a “real” experience as we push into the 2020s? And how, above it all, do we maintain what it means to be human, that is “to love”? These are all important questions that I am using Virtual Reality as a cinematic metaphor to explore.

We as humans continually pursue new dreams, when we either succeed or fail at current ones; a process which inevitably forces us to interact with the wonderful yet risky aspects of what it means “to pursue.” Hide Your Fires explores our innately positive, hopeful propensity as human beings to contribute artistically and belong to the world in an exciting, purposeful way. The story speaks also to the pitfalls and dangers that come with pursuing new dreams and landscapes, both professional and the rapidly changing and growing technological.

There is a psychological duality in Simon that is relatable and identifiable for all audiences – a masculine energy that desires to accomplish and conquer, and a feminine power that is vulnerable, falls in love, and dreams. He’s not perfect, but he’s eager. Simon is all of us, moving into a new, technologically potent future. He is the conduit for the modern human being grappling with the challenges of integrating technology that has the potential to manipulate our thoughts, feelings, and perceptions.