Creating a temporary city in the middle of a desert, setting up free festivities in “theme camps” within the city, having people from all over showcase their art, talents and interest in “exhibits,” then burning it all afterwards; this and more happens annually at the Burning Man event in Black Rock Dessert, Nevada. The Burning Man event, which got it’s name from the giant wooden man burned each year towards the end of the event, happens each summer for the duration of 1 week. Director Damon Brown depicts the event in his documentary “Burning Man: Beyond Black Rock.” The documentary was released on DVD August 1 2006, and was recently shown on October 17 at Bambu Two Café.
Depending on one’s view of complete freedom of expression, one may be completely awed or mildly uncomfortable at seeing the freedom at Burning Man. However, whether one supports free expression or not, one should definitely see the documentary to understand the powerful determination and passion the artist have for creating beautiful art pieces only to be destroyed later, and the organizers have for setting up the city only to be taken down later.
Brown brings great insight into the yearlong journey taken by the organizers, artist and participants of Burning Man. We are given unprecedented access to follow some of the artists such as David Best, “the temple builder,” to understand the sheer passion that drives them to build their artworks. Brown does a detailed job walking the audience through the building and operation of the unique temporary city housing Burning Man, as well as the intensity of excitement experienced by those in a free and open community. The inspiring organizers, artist and participants use their views throughout the movie to try and describe the effect and meaning of the of Burning Man to the audience.
Ultimately the film shows us how contagious and overwhelming Burning Man really is, how overwhelming freedom of expression really is. Burning Man founder Larry Harvey explains that Burning Man is an educational experience for people to feel and discover things about themselves, and ultimately to discover life. Harvey, who explains how he failed in many things he did in life, finally discovered Burning Man and explained that everything in his life just fell together.
