Phillip Gladkov's STORY OF THE SUN To Screen At Dances With Films As Official Selection

Native New Yorker and TEDx NYC speaker Philip Gladkov's STORY OF THE SUN is making its worldwide premiere at the Dances with Films Film Festival in Los Angeles at the TCL Chinese Theater on June 23rd, 2024.

STORY OF THE SUN was written, directed and animated by filmmaker and fine artist Phillip Gladkov and is the first film to ever be made out of birch bark. Gladkov, whose filmmaking centers around ecological themes, painstakingly collected thousands of pieces of birch bark from dead trees in upstate New York and hand cut the shapes used to animate the seven-minute film, which took several years to complete.

The film is evocative of the work of animation pioneer Lotte Reiniger, largely known in the filmmaking community for her 1926 film The Adventures of Prince Achmed, the oldest surviving feature-length animated film.

Gladkov even created a unique font out of birch bark for the film.

STORY OF THE SUN tells a cautionary tale of the origins of fire and its impact on humanity and what can happen if people are irresponsible with its power.

Gladkov chose to make the film out of birch due to the symbolic nature birch trees have for Indigenous and Scandinavian cultures.

Trans Asian actor and anti-nuclear activist Tsukuru Fors lent their distinctive voice to the film as the Narrator. The score was written and performed by Lionel Cohen of the Musikopedie project, a massive undertaking of 1000 tracks in a variety of genres that took over ten years to complete.

Story of the Sun screens as part of the Dances with Films film festival on June 23rd, 2024.

WRITER/DIR: Phillip Gladkov
ANIMATOR: Phillip Gladkov
PRODUCERS: Carmen Escobar Whitaker, Berman Fenelus
CAST: Tsukuru Fors, Carmen Escobar Whitaker, Chike Robinson