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^[1] of the filmmaker/sibling partnership Lorne and Lawrence Blair.

Ring of Fire: An Indonesian Odyssey
Remastered DVD cover
Genre	Documentary film
Written by	Lawrence Blair
Directed by	Lorne Blair
Starring	John Chang
Narrated by	Lorne Blair Lawrence Blair
Composer	Mason Daring
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of episodes	5(8)
Production
Executive producers	David Fanning Chris Blair Robin Gurney
Producers	Lorne Blair Lawrence Blair
Production location	Indonesia
Running time	56 minutes x 5
Production companies	WGBH-TV SavEarth Media LLC
Original release
Network	PBS (US) BBC (UK)
Release	6 June (1988-06-06) – 18 July 1988 (1988-07-18)

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^[2][3] and co-produced and written by Lawrence Blair.^[4] The executive producer was Frontline's David Fanning. The films have been shown in more than 60 countries.^{[citation needed]} A 2021 digital remaster was produced by SavEarth Media, an impact media company.

Series as five documentary films

No.	Title	Length (minutes)	Original release date
1	Spice Island Saga	58[5]	1987 (1987)
The Blair brothers follow the footsteps of naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace on a Bugis sailboat in search of the bird of paradise to the Aru Islands near New Guinea.
2	Dance of the Warriors	58[6]	1987 (1987)
The brothers sail to the islands of Komodo where they encounter the Komodo dragon, Sumba where they witness human sacrifice, western New Guinea where they meet the Asmat, and finally Bali where they build a home in a village.
3	East of Krakatoa	58[7]	1987 (1987)
The Blairs descend into the active volcano Anak Krakatoa and meet the legendary 116-year-old artist Lempad. They also meet the neigong master, John Chang, known as “Dynamo Jack” and witness the funeral rites of the king of the Toraja people of the Celebes.
4	Dream Wanderers of Borneo	61[8]	1987 (1987)
The brothers go in search of the nomadic Punan Dayaks.
5	Beyond the Ring of Fire	56	1996 (1996)
Lawrence Blair returns to a lost paradise at the outer edge of the known world eight years later in a retrospective voyage to many of the islands first visited and others never previously filmed.

Series as TV episodes

No.	Title	Length (minutes)	Original release date	Rerun Date
1	East with the Boogiemen	25	6 June 1988 (1988-06-06)[9]	13 August 1990[10]
2	Spice Island Saga	25	13 June 1988 (1988-06-13)[11]	20 August 1990[12]
3	Here Be Dragons	25	20 June 1988 (1988-06-20)[13]	3 September 1990[14]
4	Dance of the Warriors	25	27 June 1988 (1988-06-27)[15]	10 September 1990[16]
5	East of Krakatoa	25	4 July 1988 (1988-07-04)[17]	17 September 1990[18]
6	Beyond the Shadow Screen	25	11 July 1988 (1988-07-11)[19]	24 September 1990[20]
7	Dream Wanderers of Borneo	25	18 July 1988 (1988-07-18)[21]	10 October 1990[22]
8	Beyond the Ring of Fire	-	1996 (1996)	-

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.^[23]

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 (both picture and sound) and is now available on iTunes (US, UK, AUS and CAN)^[24] and Vimeo On Demand.^[25][26]

Reception

In the Los Angeles Times, Steve Weinstein called the series an "incomparable adventure teeming with thrills, chills, mystery and the bizarre".^[23]

Awards

• Emmy award in 1988.^[27][28]
• Silver Apple award in 1989 from the National Educational Film and Video Festival (NEFVF).