Eliza McNitt’s powerful twenty-minute film WITHOUT FIRE was shot on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona where it is set. A mother and daughter with sparse resources are preparing for a winter storm. The daughter has to use everything around her—inventing a provisional solar heater—to keep her home warm. The film stars the late Misty Upham (FROZEN RIVER) and Magdalena Begay (DRUNKTOWN’S FINEST).

McNitt received a Sloan Production Award through NYU Tisch, where she studied film, to make WITHOUT FIRE. In addition to the short, McNitt has worked on a number of projects which integrate scientific themes. Her feature documentary REQUIEM FOR HONEYBEES is about the plight of worker honeybees disappearing which renders hives unsustainable and results in the loss of bee colonies. The film was broadcast internationally on C-Span. McNitt has also worked in Virtual Reality; she is a member of the New Museum of Contemporary Art’s incubator–NEW INC–with her project FISTFUL OF STARS. The VR experience centers on The Hubble Telescope.

WITHOUT FIRE is available to stream in full on Science & Film. It will be included in the 2017 edition of the Sloan Science & Film Teacher’s Guide, to be published in September, which creates a teaching framework including discussion questions and resources for 50 Sloan-supported short films.