In development · A feature film
Standing in Fire
We made a short film first, to prove that a central figure in the history of firefighting could hold an audience. It played fifteen festivals and reached a national audience.
Now we're making the feature it always deserved to be.
WHY WE'RE MAKING SIF, THE MOVIE
Garrett Morgan invented the Safety Hood—the direct predecessor of the modern gas mask—then descended into a toxic, smoke-filled tunnel beneath Lake Erie to rescue trapped workers when others refused to go. He reemerged with three men alive. The city he saved refused to acknowledge what he did.
Standing in Fire is more than a film; it is an act of civic repair. We are making this to restore a figure of extraordinary historical importance to the American cultural record, and to tell his story with the craft and seriousness it has always deserved.
We bring both creative and analytical discipline to this work—developing projects with rigorous attention to story, historical accuracy, and distribution strategy. Standing in Fire is the founding act of Lightmile Media's mission to restore overlooked American stories to the cultural record.
Philip M. Musey
Writer / Director / Producer
Proof of concept
Before Standing in Fire, we produced The Inventor—a short biographical film about Garrett Morgan created to serve as our proof-of-concept.
The results were definitive: The Inventor screened at 15 film festivals nationally, was named a finalist for a Warner Bros. Discovery competition at the Martha's Vineyard African American Film Festival, was licensed to AMC Networks for national broadcast, and returned more than five times its production budget.
The Inventor demonstrated measurable national audience demand for Garrett Morgan's story. Standing in Fire is the feature-length realization of that proven foundation.
The proof of concept
The Inventor
We made the short first, to find out whether the story played the way we thought it would. It did.
Watch it. Then help us make the next one.
Give Now
The feature is next. Cleveland cast and crew, the tunnel rebuilt where it happened, the story told the way it actually went.
Give Appreciated Stock
Standing in Fire is fiscally sponsored by Fractured Atlas, a 501(c)(3) public charity: every gift is fully tax-deductible.
If you're holding stock you've owned for more than a year, you can donate the shares directly and receive a deduction for their full market value.
To count for your 2026 taxes, stock transfers must settle by December 31, 2026.
Standing in Fire is a fiscally sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Contributions are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.
EIN: 11-3451703