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Burning Man Festival
40 minutes Documentary / Educational
Documentary on America's largest counter cultural event
Intended Audience: Mature
This film is the first of two documentaries by Joe Winston on the Burning Man Festival, America's largest countercultural event.
“In style and substance, a terrific piece of work! Try to imagine a combination of ‘Apocalypse Now,’ ‘Woodstock’ and ‘The Road Warrior.’" - Chicago Tribune, August 1996.
For over ten years, this unique gathering has been held in a barren spot of the Nevada Desert. Attracting over 30,000 participants, the burning of the Man culminates a five-day carnival of artistic creativity and deviance from societal norms.
Celebrants dress in costumes, strut naked, dance in the nude, create religions, race in rocket-powered cars, shoot automatic weapons, or do whatever it is they don't get enough of at home. The festival founder refers to this semi-structured anarchy as "a laboratory for reinventing civilization." Experience it on video – it’s cooler and less dusty than actually going out to the desert.
This documentary is an often humorous travel adventure film, providing a guided tour of the Burning Man Festival, in all its wondrous strangeness. Festival organizers and participants each weigh in with a kaleidoscopic variety of viewpoints of just what the festival is really all about. Some argue that Burning Man is a complete utopian society, others blurt out that it's "just another excuse to get naked." As a viewer, you get to decide who's right, but you won't be bored for a moment.
- Directed by: Joe Winston
- Written by: Joe Winston
- Produced by: Joe Winston
- Run Time: 40 minutes
- Release Date: 1997
-
Country:
United States of America
- Intended Audience: mature
- Website Burning Man Festival
Written by Joe Winston
Produced by Joe Winston
Cast
Larry Harvey: Thatcher
John Law: Dawn
Dan Miller: Gabe
Paul Pomerleau: Chun-hee
Jengis Alpar: Wol-ryeong
Anton Kast: daughter
John Marston: Tug Boat Captian
Aaron Landy: Tug Boat Captian
Scott Beale: Tug Boat Captian
Larry Harvey: Tug Boat Captian
Beyond Race: Tug Boat Captian
Fantuzzi: Tug Boat Captian
Dimension Seven: Tug Boat Captian
This documentary was shot in the summer of 1995, back when the Burning Man Festival attracted "only" 4,000 participants. Back then it was possible to actually see the entire event and visit most all of the artists in the four days it lasted. Ten years later, the spirit of the event is much the same, despite its rapid growth - although the organizers, for obvious safety reasons, no longer permit the fast driving and sport-shooting of automatic weapons depicted in this film.