Thin Line Film Festival, Texas. Feb 18th 2010
February 18th 2010. 7pm
Campus Theater, Denton, TX
Thin Line Film Festival just announced that Dust & Illusions was selected for their 2010 sessions. This is a good news. Thin Line happens in Denton, TX, just north of Dallas. I will try to set up a video link to do the Q&A as I will be away from the country during that period of time.
The film will have almost had a full year theater tour in the US. A very successful one, with almost every show sold out. The film is entertaining and at the same time is done to make one think about what the Burning Man phenomenon really represents today.
Dust & Illusions is also different from a lot of other film, in the fact that I’m not looking for distribution, yet the film is working really well. I hope it will continue.
Enjoy the film in Texas!
Radar Hamburg Intl Film Festival (4th selection!)
November 5th 7:30pm
LICHTMESS KINO, Gauss Strasse 25 • Tel. +4940.3907603, www.lichtmess-kino.de
RADAR Hamburg has just announced Dust & Illusions has been selected for the 2009 session (November 2-7). This is the 4th selection for the film and counting! Hamburg is located in the Northern tip of Germany (2 hours northwest of Berlin). I won’t be able to attend as I will be at the screenings of the film in New-York, Philly, Baltimore & Boston, b/w Nov 1st and Nov 6th.
Full details and schedule on Radar Hamburg’s website: http://www.radarhamburg.com/en/index.html
This will be the 2nd showing in Europe after the sold out screening in London last August 6th. There will be more, whether through film festival or special screenings. At first I had tried to work on a screening in Paris, France, but the Burning Man Regional there told me that the film would turn people off Burning Man. I was really surprised by such a short-sighted reaction.
The film is the only documentary that explores the history of the event, rediscovering the roots of the event within the underground movements of the later 1970s in San Francisco. It looks at the journey the festival has taken from the beach on the Pacific Ocean to the desert of the Black Rock in Nevada. It brings out the reasons why it has become so popular and of course looks at where it’s headed. The film brings important questions that must be asked to ensure the experiment goes on and keeps its promise of building community through creativity. The French burners are missing out on this deep look at the event, and an essential overview of what the political games, and leadership can lead us into in the long run. But I believe there are more enlightened people in Paris that will understand why it’s important to be critical and take a deep look at where the communities we care for are going so we keep caring for them.
At most of the screenings, people have come to me and told me how the film has inspired them to go home and make art. An Oakland steel worker who came to the screening of the film in Berkeley last June, has now joined the Flaming Lotus Girls, and went to his 1st Burning Man last week along with the group. He said the film really inspired him to put his skills into Art, and added that the balanced criticism was important in making the film relevant without alienating people by being only preachy of the “all-positive-benefits” anyone get from Burning Man. He didn’t even wear a pink furry costume covered in blinkies… surprisingly.
See you in Hamburg!!
Official Selection Idaho Intl Film Fest Sept 24-27th 2009
Dust & Illusions has been selected by the Idaho International Film Festival that happens yearly in Boise, ID. This is the 3rd film festival selection, and other film festivals are now showing interests. About 10 other festivals have either invited me to send them a screener of the film or/and have waived the usual fee that most American film festival requires to pay to cover some of their administration cost.
Bruce Fletcher the director of the festival wrote this little commentary on the film:
DUST & ILLUSIONS, Olivier Bonin’s fascinating, controversial documentary takes a privileged glimpse at the history and future of Burning Man, one of the most important (if not the most important) counter-cultural movements of the last two decades.
Bonin provides a thoughtful and critical overview of the event’s transformation from a humble guerilla art project on San Francisco’s Baker Beach to a major corporation that funds artists, fosters a year-round virtual community, and builds Black Rock City in the middle of nowhere on a yearly basis.
If you’ve never been to the playa, DUST & ILLUSIONS will give you an excellent idea of exactly what you’re missing, and veteran burners will see the direction the event is headed (for better or for worse). Don’t miss it. – Bruce Fletcher
You can find all the schedule details of the festival here: http://www.idahofilmfestival.com/program.htm. Dust & Illusions is programmed to play on the following dates:
- September 26th 2009, 2:30pm at The Flicks
- September 27th 2009, 9:15pm at Edwards Boise Downtown Stadium 9
Official Selection SF Indie Docfest October 16-29th 2009
I’m pleased to announce that the film was selected for the SF Docfest for the October 16-29 2009 session of the festival. It will give the film proper publicity in the San Francisco Bay Area, where Burning Man was born. I hope that this push will help get a discussion going about Burning Man in the Bay Area, and where it’s headed.
Read a review by Cinesource about the film here.
SF Indie uses the Roxie to play its selection of movies. This will be the 8th annual documentary festival they organize.
Schedule:
- SHOW #1: October 17th at 9:15pm
tickets: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/producerevent/83720?prod_id=11208 - SHOW #2: October 22nd at 7pm
tickets: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/producerevent/83718?prod_id=11208
Official Selection Pärnu Int’l Documentary Festival. July 2009
The Pärnu International Documentary Film Festival has selected the film. That’s the 2nd film festival. Another good news. I hope they will keep coming.
Despite some of the criticism I received from people in the Burning Man organization, saying that the film might turn people away from the festival, it will actually very much do exactly the opposite. This film is an honest account of certain aspects of the festival, and an account of its history that will mesmerize people who have never heard of Burning Man, and certainly attract people outside of the US, which will be a good thing. Remember the belgians in 2006, when they brought the Waffle, I mean Uchronia, we were all so impressed. Well it’s time for people from different horizons to impress and inspire us again about what Burning Man is all about!
Many people who have never been to the festival came to tell me after each screening that they really want to go… not only to party, but to participate in creative collaboration, which is what the film tries to present as the essence of Burning Man.
Pärnu Docfest is happening on July 5-26 2009.
http://www.chaplin.ee/filmfestival/index.htm
Please continue supporting the film, this will help with finishing the last bits of Voice Over, and Sound Mix so needed. Click on Support the film button on the right hand side.
Screening announced:
Monday July 6th 2009, 7pm
THE MUSEUM OF NEW ART (10 Esplanaadi Str.)
Pärnu, Estonia
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