Ring of Fire: An Indonesian Odyssey


The Ring of Fire: An Indonesian Odyssey is a series of five documentary films following the decade-long Wanderjahr of the filmmaker/sibling partnership Lorne and Lawrence Blair.
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Background

With financing from investors including the BBC and Ringo Starr, the Blair Brothers arrived in Indonesia from England in 1972. At that time, the Indonesian archipelago offered isolation for Neolithic cultures and their indigenous beliefs. The Blair brothers spent over two decades documenting the relationships between island ecology and their peoples.

Production

Originally edited from 80 hours of 16mm film in co-production with WGBH-TV, Boston, Ring of Fire was produced, directed and photographed by Lorne Blair and co-produced and written by Lawrence Blair. The executive producer was Frontline's David Fanning. The films have been shown in more than 60 countries. A 2021 digital remaster was produced by SavEarth Media, an impact media company.

Release

Ring of Fire aired in weekly installments from May 16, 1988, at 8 p.m. on Channels 28 and 15 as part of the PBS “Adventure” series.
One result of the work was a PBS-distributed multimedia package: an oversized picture book, alongside the Emmy-nominated BBC/PBS television series titled Ring of Fire. A book of the television series was published in 1988 and republished in 2010. A digitally remastered DVD was released in 2003. In 2021, in celebration of 50 years since filming began, Ring of Fire: An Indonesian Odyssey was digitally remastered and is now available on iTunes and Vimeo On Demand.

Reception

In the Los Angeles Times, Steve Weinstein called the series an "incomparable adventure teeming with thrills, chills, mystery and the bizarre".

Awards