The Smell of Burning Ants

"The Smell of Burning Ants" is a haunting account of the pains and trauma of growing up male. In a layered and non-didactic way, it details the process of emotional death many boys suffer as the are socialized to become men. The inner and outer cruelties that boys perpetrate and endure are evocatively presented. Rather than glorifying and romanticizing boyhood, this film opens up wounds to let the poisons out.