Dust & Illusions (2009)

Director:

Olivier Bonin

Release Date:

28 March 2009 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary

Tagline:

30 years of history of the Burning Man festival from its origins in the late 1970s until today

Plot:

Once a year, on a vast Nevada lake bed surrounded by mountains and for the past 20 years, the Burning...

Plot Keywords:

Burning Man | Community | Nevada | Techno Music | Desert

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Jerry James	...	Burning Man Co-Founder / Carpenter
Larry Harvey	...	Burning Man Co-Founder and Executive Director
John Law	...	Burning Man Co-Founder / Cacophonist
Michael Mikel	...	Burning Man Co-Founder and Director
Michael Hopkins	...	Artist
Kevin Evans	...	Artist
William Binzen	...	Artist / Photographer
Charlie Gadeken	...	Artist / Boxshop Artists Studios' Director
Pepe Ozan	...	Artist / Sculptor
Chicken John	...	Event Promoter
Adrian Roberts	...	Newspaper Editor / Piss Clear Editor
Marian Goodell	...	Burning Man Communication and Finance Director
Rebecca Randers	...	Artist / Flaming Lotus Girls
James Stauffer	...	Writer / Flaming Lotus Girls
Jim Mason	...	Artist / Shipyard Artists Studios' Director

Runtime:

80 min (original version)

Country:

France | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (MiniDV)

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

USA:Not Rated

Filming Locations:

Black Rock Desert, Nevada, USA

Company:

Imagine

Trivia:

Adrian Roberts talks about his first Burning Man in 1993. The sequence shows the burning of the wooden effigy during that exact year. In the footage you see lightnings at two separate times. The lightnings were not added to the image, but were actually recorded that same night. That night it rained a lot and there was a little panic on the playa. One camera crew left in a rush with their RV, making many people laugh.

A stunning film which dissects the object but fails the subject

In an amazing and unequaled film which tries to encompass Burning Man as an event, movement, culture, and tangent off the zeitgeist, Bonin shows how a unique, complex entity emerges (in proper post-modern style) from elements of 20th century counter/culture blended together by individuals and groups whose quirks and flaws at times contradict and threaten the creation they engender.

Spanning 20 years featuring unequaled access to seminal figures and archival footage, at times funny and often dryly ironic, D&I engages and dissects the people and groups who gestated and cultivate the movement.

If the subject was a corporation or political movement, this film would be nearly perfect. But Burning Man is something else and the 'leaders', the history even, of the event is not the event. The map, as it were, is not the territory, and without addressing the territory the film ultimately fails to address the life, spirit, and meaning of the festival.

Perhaps Bonin's ennui issuing from too much exposure to the politics and drama of the (self-proclaimed?) core individuals narrowed his focus to convincingly and at times devastatingly slicing open and pinning the objects at the expense of the subject.

Ultimately a very worth-while watch for burners, the burner-curious, and anyone interested in issues of culture, community, social (d)evolution, arts and, yes, parties.