Customer Reviews

Into the Heart of Fire at the Burning Man Festival [VHS]

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The is a tale of three cameramen and what they experienced at the largest freeform artistic expression fair in the world. This may not be a good choice for Mormons or devout Religous Right Christians, there is a lot of nudity. Full frontal, full backal, full everything. The film starts with thier drive out into the Nevada Dessert and chronicals their experience. This film is wild. From nighttime primal drum circles and techno beat discos to tours of the local nude hot springs, this film captures the feeling of going to the Burningman Festival. Among the highlights are: a giant pagan ritual/opera with at least a hundred dancers fire and music; water nymphs dancing at the hot springs; the Wild Man (you have to see him to understand); the Burn itself; and the people. After viewing this tape I felt wrung out, like I had been there in the dessert myself.

Mix of lots of non-chronological video of lots of people doing whatever they came to BM to do. Misc brief interviews with participants & Larry Harvey (founder). Audio is a little quiet/loud. Video is from both day and night. Good sampler of the people and art.

"Into the Heart of Fire: At the Burning Man Festival " was a hallucinogenic trip! And I mean that in a good way! I watched the film twice in one evening! The amateur quality of the film added to the carnival-like atmosphere of the whole event. The people at Burning Man are beautiful and bizarre. They are also naked. The event is Mardi Gras and Woodstock all rolled into one. It is also an Expo for the work of artists, engineers, and designers. This film was the next best thing to an evening on Psilocybin mushrooms. It is now my mission to experience Burning Man first hand.

As a past participant in the grand camping/raving/people-meeting/art fest that is Burning Man, I must say that although this video showed much of what makes the event great (original artwork, interesting/slightly off-center people, the challenge of camping in the desert, the amazing after-dark music and lights), it presented it in an oddly detached, voyeuristic way (e.g., lots of topless/naked women; very little sense of who the filmmakers were) that goes against what the festival stands for. It's supposed to be about participating rather than oggling, experiencing rather than just seeing or hearing. I've seen a shorter video (sorry, can't remember which one) that does Burning Man more justice. Still, this video isn't bad--just don't expect it to reflect what it was like to actually be there.

This video is sophmorish. I believe the documentarian should have watched less "American Pie" and more "American Experience". The pagan style rituals displayed don't seem to go the depth. I never got any answers from this video.

Why are they in the desert? Why are they naked? Who really cares? Why am I wasting 90 minutes on nothing but eye-candy.

At a screening locally I saw a shorter, more documentary styled film that seemed to go into the event better. I know there is better quality out the on this subject.