I was more than pleasantly surprised. Sure there are a few misstatements, and a whole lot of “current-day-spin-speak” from the self appointed gurus of the cult. Everyone happily buys that the original man was NOT Larry’s friends burning away his ex-in-effigy after she left him with his child (Can’t lose half your audience and ticket sales and make it a sausage fest). But the spin was minimal.

What was not minimal was the drawing and connection to such things as Desert Site Works, The Suicide Club, and a real opening up of the visions of so many artists, trustifarians, musician and pranksters that brought this festival to life. It is well worth a watch, no matter what your level of participation, or your diefied belief in the cult.

My first year was 1991. I came to the event as a researcher from UC Davis on an anthropology project. Been there, blew that up. Watched the festival grow, was an insider, watched the current board claim they invented everything since two hydrogens and an oxygen made water. I can see why many in the org don’t like it as it cuts into their omnipotence claims, but you don’t have to see it that way. Its just a good film, period. I think this film is like democracy, it may not be perfect, but its the best thing on the BM Cult I’ve seen so far.

Bwana

But more than that, the film questions the central tension of this sort of event: how does one put together an event that celebrates radical self-expression while still organizing upwards of 50,000 people so that a temporary city still works for everyone?

Last night our audience (Thursday, Oct 28, 2010) gathered during a Giants game to watch the film. Our group was mostly in standard SF street wear…no fur or blinky lights that I noticed.

Pretty early on it our audience was less generous with comments by Larry and others when they said in the film that organization was key or the event would degenerate into “a mob” (actual quote by Larry). San Francisco has a history of questioning authority and that showed up here in various disapproving gasps when “authority” asserted itself in the film.

I understand the need for spontaneity and expression, after all that’s why I go there and most of my friends are burners. At the same time, having organized events I understand the BM leadership’s view, too.

The film did a good job showing that a small group of people, the Suicide Club, Cacophony Society and Desert Siteworks, could be responsible because the ethos of the event permeated each member and each member took personal responsibility for the safety and creativity of the event. But once the attendance grew beyond the originating group, the inevitable yahoos who didn’t have the same sense of responsibility would do stupid things. As Larry points out in the film — they have to deal with the threat of the lawsuits. I just have to go there, bring whatever my contribution is that year, explore my inner world for seven days and come back.

On the other hand, the film did make me want to lose the fireworks on Saturday night more than ever. And I could detect the pull toward ritualization in Larry’s speaking, and that’s something to watch out for. Although I personally have no trouble with a bit of it, we humans to tend to bring that too far; note the crazy number of religions we regularly seem to create and then convince ourselves are real instead of all made up.

Still, despite its need to change as it “grows up” I would rather be with the Burning Man community than anywhere else on the planet for those seven days in September.

So this is the mark of a good film. Whichever way your particular opinion falls on the matter you will be thinking about your role in the community, the nature of community itself, the tension between self-expression and the real need to organize 50,000 daily porta-potty visits — all while several layers of government increasingly scrutinize your every move.

I’m very glad I saw the film; I hadn’t realized the void I had not knowing the history of the event. It’s funny, though, now that I know the history I’m a little out of sorts. Something got dislodged by seeing the film, perhaps my own idealization of Burning Man?

I have witnessed the collision with Rave culture firsthand and have found it more and more unsettling each year. Yet, there are thousands that come to Burning Man looking for exactly that. When it’s all said and done I agree with The Lotus Girls’ standpoint – contributing to an Art Project seems to be the best route.

“You can only go to the same party so many times….”