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The biggest bushfire to ever hit Australia not only destroyed a hundred homes and a million hectares of bush (at 4138 square miles, an area bigger than Puerto Rico and almost the size of Delaware), it left fractured communities scattered in its wake, too. Dancing With The Devil meets the volunteer firefighters, the rural dreamers and ‘tree changers’ united by the fateful events on the fringes of Sydney during Australia’s ‘Black Summer.’ As a series of blazes merged together, a desperate ill-fated attempt to slow the ‘main’ fire by ‘backburning’ was carried out. What led to some communities being drawn together and others breaking at the seams?

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In this 60 minute documentary, director Bill Code (The Lake of Scars, 2022) and writers/producers Bill and Sarah Allely (Brain on Nature podcast) explore what it means to be a resilient community in the face of untold natural disaster, supported by Mike Tilbrook's original score and the gripping news photography of Nick Moir (main picture, above).

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Released locally and screened in town halls and galleries in Windsor, Colo Heights, St Albans and beyond in late 2024, Dancing With The Devil will also have a long-term screening space at the Dyarrubin gallery in Windsor, following a limited theatrical release in Feb/March 2025. Further distribution details will be released in early 2025. The film was funded with the support of a Black Summer Bushfire Recovery grant via Hawkesbury City Council's arts and culture team.