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Fear not, you're safe: go and have fun and experience a city created in the desert each year for its own sake. While it might seem like one gigantic Venice Beach with no hot dog stands, it's much more than that. Burning Man: Beyond Black Rock chronicles what it takes to put together the third biggest city in Nevada, from the organizers to the artists to the volunteers. It ends with footage of the festival itself and the burning of the man. The filmmakers for the most part forgo the point of view of revelers, instead focusing on the organizers and the artists who participate. We see a successful artist who creates a Taj Majal-like temple of memories and invites those around who attend to write down their memories of loved ones on the temple. He sets it on fire in the end, and all of those memories disappear into the desert. We also meet a less successful artist whose big vision of a sculpture in his New York studio doesn't quite live up to his expectations out in the desert. But the point is that the process and challenge of creation and sharing it with others is what makes this festival unique, from artists who have been attending for years to those recently accepted. The principles of Burning Man are clear: radical inclusion, gifting, decommodification, radical self-reliance, radical self-expression, communal effort, civic responsibility, leaving no trace, participation and immediacy. In a nutshell, everyone is welcome to attend (and they're not there to shop), to bring what they'll need to survive, to share and to leave Burning Man just like they found it. Principles that the organizers hope the participants will take back with them once they return to society. Of course, that's easier said than done, but being able to survive a sandstorm and appreciate creativity is not something easily forgotten, either. When interviewed, founder Larry Harvey said that when he was young he loved to stage plays and he was encouraged take his talent to the New York theatre scene, which he scoffed at. But really, Burning Man is one gigantic play, where the actors agree to come together without knowing what will happen. And as in live theatre, once the curtains go down and the lights come on, what has just happened cannot be recreated-it simply lives on in the memory of those who participated and those who came to watch the performance. A play is not meant to be permanent: it's a communal experience. And for someone who didn't want to direct plays, he's created a monumental production that's replicated itself throughout the world. While not enough time is spent on the festival itself, Brown succeeds in showing the massive logistics and work needed to create Burning Man. It takes months of preparation to create a self-contained city with water, electricity, first aid stations, its own newspaper, etc. FEMA could benefit from attending the festival and seeing how thousands of people are able to be housed without anarchy, death and disease taking over. Showing the festival from the desert floor up, the filmmakers illustrate the philosophy of the Burning Man throughout its infrastructure from beginning to end. And the documentary is a tease as well: who wouldn't want to go after seeing it onscreen?
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