Radar Hamburg Intl Film Festival (4th selection!)

November 5th 7:30pm
LICHTMESS KINO, Gauss Strasse 25 • Tel. +4940.3907603, www.lichtmess-kino.de
Event. Invite 200+ people from Boston on facebook and get 1 free ticket… contact me first!!

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!!