Director
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Born in France and educated with an engineering degree in microelectronics, Olivier Bonin showed an early interest in photography and film. He studied photography in San Francisco, where he found his way into filmmaking. Starting with short fictions, he quickly found a perfect symbiosis between his interest and knowledge in social movements and filmmaking in the documentary form. With his attendance to the Burning Man festival, he knew he had found a great subject combining film photography in such a beautiful environment, and a complicated human story of community building.
Editor
After studying modern literature in a French university, Arthur Guibert went on to study documentary filmmaking, with a strong emphasis on editing and writing. Later he met Jean-Pierre Krief, director and producer, and worked on documentaries dealing with social and political matters such as Saddam Hussein: Histoire d’un procès annoncé , and documentaries about art and photography such as the Contacts series. In 2008 he met Olivier Bonin with whom he shared a critical but constructive view of our contemporary time, which led to their collaboration on Dust & illusions.
Producer
In 1998 Didier Leclerc joins “Les Films Jack Fébus” a film company, with which he develops films with musical trend (“Canta” in 2005) as well as documentaries about social issues and films of discovery (” Tankers en plein ciel ” – in 2003 / ” Le syndrome des Indes ” – in 2004 ” Sur les traces de l’Aéropostale ” 2005). In 2006 he moves to IMAGINE, which goal is to develop and produce documentaries of various forms (” Nathalie Baye en toute liberté ” – in 2007 / ” Tigers en plein ciel ” – in 2008 / ” 2017, enquête sur le grand krach français ” – in 2008).
Music
Working as VP of Business Development for TEECOM Design Group (a Bay Area technology planning and Design engineering firm), Samuel Fajner moved to the US in 1998 to complete his MBA in Boston at Northeastern University. A passionate amateur musician, he has done many performances with his first alternative band “Bloody Merry” in France and has continued to perform in Boston and San Francisco where he currently resides. He is a folk artist who wanders in the Electronica, Ambient, and Trip Hop realm. He has composed, recorded and produced a solo folk album in Boston titled “S.A.M simply” and a few singles, and has composed and recorded an original soundtrack score for “The Hand of God” a 3 minutes short film for the Flaming Lotus Girls of San Francisco. Sam worked very closely with Olivier Bonin on Dust & Illusions to create a strong emotional connection between image and sound.
Narration
While Tom Kennedy has never been known for lacking things to say and to do, he is better known for being one of the art car pioneers out on the playa. In 1994 Tom brought his silver shark car Ripper the Friendly Shark to the desert and the contagious fun of sharing rolling art has dominated his work ever since. Whether it be a 72′ long white whale, a fighting dinosaur car or a life-sized missile launcher, Tom’s work straddles both the whimsical and the surreal. Conceived in Oregon but born in New Jersey nine months later, Tom had been searching for home his whole life and found his tribe in Nevada’s dust bowl. Now living and working with his wife Haideen in San Francisco making art cars and more, Tom met Olivier in 2004 and has lent assistance to Dust & Illusions ever since.
Tom Kennedy left us on April 12th 2009, the birthday of my son. Tom became a close friend through our collaboration on his and my projects. We were planning new projects and were looking at the future together. Tom has always been very generous, and inspiring. His activism impressed me because he fought for what he believed. And surprisingly to me, he did it all with a smile, always happy and positive. I will miss Tom.
