Dust & Illusions

(2009)

★ 7.9 IMDb · 130 votes

Genres: Documentary

Year: 2009

Runtime: 80 мин

Director: Olivier Bonin

Plot

Dust & Illusions explores 30 years of history of the Burning Man event. Born in the underground of San Francisco in the 1980s, the festival became the largest counter- cultural event in North America. It is unique in that it is created by the people who come to the event, the participants, not the organizers, and in that sense it has survived its original ideals/utopias, but the ideas have been eroded by time, pressure from the larger society. The film is a look at this necessary evolution and expansion and questions our ability to stand behind those ideals over a lifetime.

Once a year, on a vast Nevada lake bed surrounded by mountains and for the past 20 years, the Burning Man festival brings together tens of thousands of people who are attracted by the festival's promise of seven days of de-commodification, community, artwork, and revelry. But increasingly, many question whether Burning Man's mainstream appeal threatens - or even upends - the festival's utopian vision. Through a series of in-depth interviews of the festival's founders, organizers, and participants, DUST & ILLUSIONS traces the festival's history, while examining whether the festival is a victim of its own success. The documentary also offers a new perspective about the event, and looks at our ability as human beings to create new forms of community in the 1st century.