The video is a poetic narrative of a contemporary Chicano man who is proverbially “down and out on his luck.” The scenery is urban Los Angeles. It appears that some misfortune occurred in the man’s life, prior to the scene which opens with him. The scenario inspires questions. Was the subject recently fired from his job? Or has he been unemployed for too long? Did he find himself suddenly homeless? Was he pushed to the edge and did he commit a crime? Is he on the verge of committing suicide?

In FIRE ANTS FOR NOTHING, Harry Gamboa junior uses metaphor and analogy while juxtaposing the organic against the synthetic. Natural elements such as dirt on the ground, twigs and insects unfold into scenes where synthetic and man-made materials such as plastic, hardened cement of city sidewalks, and brick and mortar of Downtown LA buildings, clash against one another, while sheltering and suffocating the softness of a broken-down man Chicano man.

[Source: Lili Bernard]