Principal photography has begun on Sheila Pye’s coming-of-age drama The Young Arsonists.

It’s the first feature film from Pye, who until now has been focused on shorts including The Red Virgin, The Paper Wall, Loudly Death Unties and Empty Room and a Lot of Errors.

The Young Arsonists follows four teenage girls during a summer in the 1980s who form an intense and obsessive bond while reclaiming an abandoned farmhouse as their own in an isolated farming community.

The film features Aaron Poole (American Gods), Miranda Calderon (Titans), Joe Bostick (IT Chapter Two) and Measha Brueggergosman alongside newcomers including Maddy Martin, Jenna Warren, Sadie Rose and Madison Baines.

The Young Arsonists is produced by Agata Smoluch Del Sorbo from Borrowed Light Films and Sonya Di Rienzo and Aeschylus Poulos at Hawkeye Pictures. The film will be executive produced by Martin Katz and Karen Wookey.

Shooting in Caledonia, ON through early September, The Young Arsonists was developed with the assistance of the Harold Greenberg Fund. The film is produced with the participation of Telefilm Canada, Ontario Creates, Crave and The Shaw Rocket Fund.