BRAVO!!! Extremely well done.

I thought the criticism was fair but one sided. I would like to have seen more participants of recent BM’s interviewed. I think that group was not well represented and might have shown an opposing view to the criticisms.

Please release the DVD soon – I know of a lot of people who would like to see this firm!!!!

The movie was put together masterfully with a good but not overpowering soundtrack and beautiful scenes from past events that for me evoked the spirit at the time they were happening. The interviews were insightful and just detailed enough not to lose my interest. I loved the characters such as Chicken John and Flash especially, but Larry’s personality was always present and bigger than life. The last time I saw such an ego was watching Bill Graham in “Gimme Shelter” many years ago.

I would have liked to see some more attention paid to the current and ongoing issues that have plagued recent Burning Man Festivals such as clogged porta-potties, theft and other crimes, and the incredible clean-up efforts that are needed to pick up after all the participants that have no clue what “Leave no trace” means. I understand, however, that the movie needs to be held to 90 minutes or less and the bad behavior of a few yahoos should not determine the tone for the rest of the movie anyway.

The movie has given me fresh eyes with which to view this years picnic.

1/ Delancey St, I should have explained is a non-profit organization that helps homeless/addicts, people who have hit bottom get back on their feet. SO they have very strict rules about what is possible to do in their enclave. Far from bourgeois, they are people who have gone so low, they are trying to protect the place, and one way they do it is with very strict rules. I feel that the bohemian types should really support what the Foundation is doing, it’s important work that works! So I will continue showing the film there to support them.

2/ David Best… would have been another man in a series of quite a few male portraits already in the film. But I didn’t choose him intentionally. He has inspired many people, but after following his crew for a little while, I didn’t see the kind of cohesion, and long term goals that I have found in the Flaming Lotus Girls (FLG). The FLG have built a group of artists, a community, which main purpose is to teach newcomers the art of metal/fire work. Their second goal, through which they achieve the 1st one is to build sculptures. With that in mind, a natural sense of belonging emerges through the group. And I haven’t found that in David’s crew (and here I am calling it David’s crew, the FLG are the Flaming Lotus Girls, period. No leader, no #1 artist,… other reason I have chosen to feature them), even though a sense of belonging transpires, I haven’t felt it to be as strong. This comment doesn’t come from a scientific comparison b/w the 2 groups, rather an emotional response to spending some time with them.

3/ Hard to say what BM is about really. Everyone sort of owns it. It’s not all about the ART. But the approach to the ART is the only aspect that is truly unique to this event. The temple and its spirituality, we know too well, that it is well represented all around the world. The communal experience exists in many places, often not as publicized as BM is. But an event where the participants are left to make this event what they want it to be, very uncommon at this scale. BM to me is unique in this call for creativity… which I too often simply call ART, but it’s not just the sculptures, it’s all the performances, the impromptu little accordeon concerts, the tuna meals, etc… People pull their creativity together and bring it there. That’s what I wanted to celebrate in the film, and BORG2 did what they did, and they made it about the ART, because they were sculptural artists and that’s what they knew best. I wanted to illustrate one point of community upraising and how it was received by the ORG. It wasn’t just about BORG2, it wasn’t to celebrate BORG2, rather to celebrate the community that our need to create builds organically.

4/ That I know… give me a minute and I’ll fix it. Thanks for pointing it out. And thank you for your comment, critique is our life blood… in France

I saw it at the Toronto screening; it was a really special week for Burners in the city because the Flaming Lotus Girls had their Angel of the Apocalypse installation all week at a free festival – right in front of city hall! It was great to see all kinds of people getting a little of the BM magic, and to see the playa-inspired flames shoot up in the frosty, January night.

WELL DONE!!! i really really enjoyed the screening! To begin, the World Cafe was a good palce to host it, and definitely did justice to the presentation (and i think everyone liked the food)! But i really, really enjoyed your presentation of the history of Burning Man. I’;ve been researching Burning Man for most of the year, but your film certainly went more in depth into areas I hadn’t realized had been so influential (such as the Cacophony Society- I’d known it was involved, but there seemed to be more of a merger that happened, which i wasn’t aware of). Also, I liked the focus on some of the more fundemental contributors and why they did/didn’t stay with Burning Man over it’s physical and ideological transformation. I recently just got done reading AfterBurn: reflections on Burning Man, by Lee Gilmore and Mark Van Proyen. I appreciated your film a lot because it was very much like the book, except i thought yours was more focused and in depth, and therefore much more educational. And interesting! I couldn’t believe that you got all that film (or even that it existed!). I feel like no one really films anything, anymore, so that was a really cool window to be able to look back through. Oh! I also like that the film, kinda, was a subtle roast of Larry Harvey, but that it didn’t just criticize- it just exposed that this man, kinda of eccentric and spontatneous and flawed, didn;t always do it right, but was the one who kept it going, for better or for worse, for 20 years, “longer than the hippie, beatnik, and a few other movements combined”. In short, i thought this was a really good insight for people not only in the culture, but ones just getting started. Thanks and great job!

The film gives a lot of insight into Burning Man’s history and founding members as well as the filmmaker’s own perspective, but it manages to do so without becoming prescriptive about what Burning Man means, how it should be run, or what it should become in the future. It effectively connects questions about Burning Man to larger questions about the roles of creativity and community in human society at large.

Rather than attempting to answer these questions directly, the film ultimately turns them right back on its audience, which I thought was a fitting ending — very in line with Burning Man’s ideal of us all being participants rather than observers.

Thanks for making the film, very well done.