If you’re reading this, you’re probably not in Black Rock Desert.
On the other hand, they probably have wifi amid the motoro homes at Burning Man this year.
Each August, more than 60,000 people from around the globe gather in a dusty windswept Nevada desert to build a temporary city, collaborating on large-scale art and partying for a week before burning a giant effigy in a ritual frenzy. Rooted in principles of self-expression, self-reliance and community effort, Burning Man has grown famous for stirring ordinary people to shed their 9-to-5 existence and act on their dreams. Spark takes us behind the curtain with Burning Man organizers and participants, revealing a year of unprecedented challenges and growth. When ideals of a new world based on freedom and inclusion collide with realities of the “default world,” we wonder which dreams can survive.
To celebrate Burning Man week, join us and other Cultural Weekly readers for our Movie Nite selection. You can download and watch Spark right here. (You can rent the download for 72 hours, or buy it forever, or purchase the DVD.)
Spark premiered at SXSW 2013. The New York Times wrote: “An oasis of creativity blooms in Spark, a documentary account of the preparations for, and realization of, the 2012 iteration of Burning Man, the annual weeklong burst of invention and eccentricity in the Black Rock Desert in Nevada around Labor Day. Sixty thousand people assemble for this carnival, bringing their own colorful accommodations and often creating giant art installations, which are either disassembled or — like the huge wooden totem that gives Burning Man its name — destroyed at the gathering’s close.”
We love this behind-the-scenes view of Burning Man, and the way filmmakers Steve Brown and Jessie Deeter don’t shy away from the battle between art and commerce on the cracked desert floor.
Let us know what you think!
From Yekra, a revolutionary new distribution network for feature films.
Top image: The Temple at Burning Man, photo by Jason Mongue, courtesy Spark documentary