Product Details

• Directors: Joe Winston
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Ow Myeye Productions, Inc.
• VHS Release Date: July 31, 1997
• Run Time: 40 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000087RIX
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #454,393 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Every year thousands gather in the remote Nevada desert at a festival that one gleeful participant in this documentary describes as "a rainbow gathering for bad people." Burning Man (the name refers to the annual practice of incinerating an enormous effigy in the desert) is ostensibly an arts festival, but it's mostly a chance for people with what can safely be termed an eccentric view of life to gather, enjoy the sun, and engage in all manner of behavior the straight world could never imagine. This documentary seems to provide an honest look at the festival, and the camera, which roams freely, captures a few days of skewed fun. The "Drive-By Shooting Range" is a popular attraction for those who bring carloads of automatic weapons and ammunition, and the camera lingers at a campsite of topless women toting assault weapons. Indeed, one young woman explains the lure of the festival with "it's just another excuse to get naked," and a nude romp in a very muddy mosh pit figures prominently in the celebration. Burning Man is a vacation for mind as well as body. The interviews in this consistently entertaining documentary showcase a number of people who aren't content to live on the edge, so once a year they dance right over it. --Robert J. McNamara

Product Description

For over ten years, this unique gathering has been held in a barren spot of the Nevada Desert. At tracting over 15,000 participants, the burning of the Man culminates a five-day carnival of artistic crea tivity and deviance from societal norms. Celebrants dress in costumes, strut naked, dance in the nude, cr eate religions, race in rocket-powered cars, shoot automatic weapons, or do whatever it is they don'’ get enough of at home. The festival founder refers to this semi-structured anarchy as "a laboratory for rein venting civilization." Experience it.

Festival screenings:
1996 Coffee Achievers Festival, San Francisco, CA. "Best of Festival" award.
1997 NY International Independent Film Festival, New York, NY. "Best Documentary" award.
1998 Burning Man Film Festival, San Francisco, CA.
1998 Around the Coyote Festival, Chicago, IL.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An engaging look at a fascinating event, February 27, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Burning Man Festival, The [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I have been to the Burning Man Festival several times and no other film that I've seen captures its essence and its insanity as well as this one. For those who are unfamiliar with it, the Burning Man is a week-long arts festival, centered around the burning of a four storey tall human effigy made of wood, neon and fireworks.

Once a year, over 10,000 people gather in the Blackrock Desert in Nevada bringing with them their art, spirit and sense of community. For a week all these things combine to create a city like none other on Earth. After a giant party on the final day, the Man is burned, as are many of the things people brought with them.

Although I disagree with many of the utopian ideals espoused by the Festivals creator and many of its participants, it is still an amazing event and an amazing experience. Joe Winston's documentary captures the spirit and the essence of this crazy place with laser-sharp precision.

Using interviews with the Festival's organizers and participants as well as footage of the projects people bring with them (some people work all year long on thier contributions) this film weaves together the many threads of experience to create a sensation that is almost as good as being there. A common sentiment among Festival participants is that it is very hard to describe just what the Burning Man is like; but this film does it, and does it well.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not your father's documentary, February 5, 2003

By 

Bob Peterson (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Burning Man Festival, The [VHS] (VHS Tape)

"The Burning Man Festival" is a fun and engaging little film that vividly and humorously explores a strange event that a bunch of San Francisco hippies hold every year somewhere in the Nevada desert.

I'd heard a little bit about Burning Man from Wired magazine and a few green-haired art students. The few I'd met who'd gone to the event tend to describe it in pseudomystical blather that makes the most brain-fried deadheads sound like William F. Buckley.

Winston's documentary, by contrast, is basically a travelogue adventure story that propels him (who we never see) and some friends of his into a bizarre tent city populated by circus performers, sculptors, nudists, ..., and other misfits.

The very first person they meet greets them at the entrance to the festival area, waving an AK-47 and demanding that they sing "This Land is Your Land." Although this lout is clearly joking, you know right away that this is no Rainbow Gathering.

From there, Winston's camera wanders around the event, giving the viewer a sort of guided tour. We watch his friends struggle to set up their tent, brave a fierce windstorm, and combat the intense desert heat and occasional boredom.

Mostly though, we meet many of the festivalgoers, as the filmmaker wanders around and interviews them. Not only are most of them naked and apparently having a great time, but they seem infused with an evangelical zeal that the the Burning Man Festival represents some kind of utopian setting, a viable alternative to straight society.

"Everybody's free to do as they please, and there are no drive by shootings, no break-ins," effuses a typical (nude) enthusiast, ignoring the fact that she's surrounded exclusively by rich, educated white people on a three-day vacation.

The film wisely waits until the end to actually show us the ritual Burning of the 50-foot tall Man which is the supposed reason for the whole event. It is spectacular, with fire-eating performers running around way too close to huge fireworks explosions and burning neon sculptures.

Finally, in an unglamorous touch which I appreciated, the film continues after the climactic nighttime revelries to show us a bunch of dazed, filthy people cleaning up the tremendous mess they've made and packing up their tents to go home.

In the end, I felt like this film had temporarily transported me to a strange and foreign land - which is just what great documentaries can do so well. I recommend it highly.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Experience Burning Man without even being there, May 20, 2003

By 

Patrick Mousel (Ludington, MI) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Burning Man Festival, The [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I had never heard of Burning Man before seeing this video. A friend told me about the festival but that wasn't enough to convince me to go, so she took me to see a screening. I was blown away. It's one thing to be told -passionately told- about something your friend believes in, but in watching Burning Man Festival, I forgot my friend was even sitting next to me. I was taken to Burning Man right there in the theater, and it was awe inspiring. I've been hunkering to get to Burning Man ever since.
If you are interested in Burning Man, this video gives a very in-depth look at the festival. It isn't a commercial- the video allows you to make your own judgments concerning the festival, but who could make a decision to trek to the middle of the desert without having a very informed source of information to judge it by? This should be your source.