"All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
his acts being seven ages."
William Shakespeare, As You Like It.
Each year, Burning Man has a different theme. In 2001, it was The Seven Ages of Man. Inspired by the Shakespeare play, As You Like It, the Seven Ages of Burning Man were The Infant, The Child, The Lover, The Soldier, Burning Man, The Justice, and The Pantaloon. The theme was our framework for the documentary. Each day, we took our 4 subjects to a different stage of life as represented by the artwork on the desert playa. Even though we abandoned this framework during the editing process, we owe much of our initial inspiration to the theme.
Behind the camera, everyone in our crew, almost all first-timers, went through a journey of discovery, awe, and personal reflection. Burning Man changed all of us. We became better people, and better filmmakers. Our story is felt, rather than seen, in this film. Like anything created at Burning Man, this documentary is a mere moment in time, but we hope it captures the incredible rush of journeying to one of the world's most enthralling events.
SYNOPSIS:
Confessions of a Burning Man investigates the evolution of a generation driven by technology and social/environmental responsibility. The object of this documentary is to raise awareness of Burning Man in a positive light. The media today is notoriously sensationalistic, focusing on appearance rather than content.
Our focus, in conjunction with Larry Harvey, the founder of Burning Man, is to explore Burning Man on two levels: Community and Art. (An event where no money is exchanged and absolutely no corporate sponsorship is allowed.)
What makes this film special was the access given to some of the amazing people behind the scenes who make Burning Man happen, add that to the beautifull cinematography shot of the event and specially of the Burn and Temple of Tears, and it all add's up to make this DVD a great way to show your friends what the Burn is all about and for you to re-live it over again.
Directed by Unsu Lee and Paul Barnet. Edited by Robbie Proctor.
THE SCORE:
The score of Confessions of a Burning Man was produced and written by Graham Shrimpton a/k/a Darkhorse of Three Sixty Records in San Francisco. The music created for Confessions of a Burning Man was a year in the making, with many talented musicians helping in the recording, including Paulo Manuelle, Peter Mayer, Jonny Downer, Michael Dipiro and Megan McCoul. The Songs "Crash and Burn," "End Song" and "Temple of Tears" were all inspired by, and scored to, the film. Great music also in the film comes from the artists Balanced Output, Runaways UK, The Beloved, Herbaliser, Bonobo and Kdub.
Featuring over one hour of bonus footage, the DVD includes director’s audio commentary with Paul Barnett and Unsu Lee, with the help of Robbie Proctor and David Silverman. Recalling the annual event with a replicated Burning Man ticket and map of Black Rock City, the DVD also includes contributions from Kevin Epps (Straight Outta Hunter's Point), Anna Getty (Yogi Times), and David Silverman (The Simpsons, Monster's Inc).
CONFESSIONS LEAVES NO FOOTPRINT BEHIND.
Ever Wonder what footprint you leave as you live?
Confessions of a Burning Man has teamed up with the service Terrapass to make sure the film left no Carbon Footprint. After using the tools at Terrapass we figured out how much Carbon the film had put into the air during its making. We then purchased a pass to cover that amount. Terrapass puts the money paid for the certificate towards projects that offset your emissions. If your feeling guilty about your carbon footprint, and can't afford a new car, here is a great way to help the planet and stop feeing guilty. Terrapass
CONFESSIONS OF A BURNING MAN IS OUT NOW
Founder: Larry Harvey on Burning man
SOME IMAGES FROM THE TRIP
SEE THE CAST AND CREW WHO MADE THE FILM Info on IMDB
QUOTES
“With its elegant graphics, and eight-camera shooting plan, Confessions of a Burning Man is simply the best documentary to date about Burning Man, the most artistically audacious, outrageously liberated gathering of humans and dust on the face of this earth. What better way to discover Burning Man than through the eyes of four carefully selected virgin Burners who have little more in common than their curiosity and determination to survive the week? The extras alone are worth the price of admission.”?
Mark Achbar, director: The Corporation
“Brings the experience of Burning Man to its audience, evoking not only the heat,?dust, and fatigue, but the sheer awe of its enormousness and generosity of spirit.”
LA Times
“Inspiring? Yes. Entertaining? Absolutely”
San Francisco Examiner
“Brings the experience of Burning Man to its audience, evoking not only the heat, dust, and fatigue, but the sheer awe of its enormousness and generosity of spirit.”
LA Times
“Anybody who has considered going to the festival or simply wants to understand it better will appreciate this movie's insider knowledge.”
TimeOut NY
"A visual-visceral trip to the 2001 festival that is short on explication, but long on sensation…a mission of immersion in the various aspects of a festival that is incongruously mass and mystifying, celebratory and semi- clandestine."
Newsday
“Barnett and Lee's graceful, sympathetic documentary focuses on participants who embody Burning Man's ideals without being blind to the opportunists and party animals it inevitably attracts.”
TV Guide
“A mesmerizing new documentary…A terrific film that gives you a feel for what its like to be a part of something eccentric, unique and quite special”
WFAA-TV
“As it happens, I was planning to take a year off from this summer's gathering; after seeing this film, I'm not sure I can.”
Seattle Weekly
“ [A] visceral, heart-tugging documentary”
Metroactive
“…Majestic filmmaking, perfect editing, good commentary, and an amazing sense of purpose to a documentary… I highly recommend it.”
"There is no space, there is no time. There is actually one entity that is Space-Time. The space of the present is occupied only by people living in the present..."
Hi Confessions of a Burning Man ... from Scot... Gatewhey has just changed to Shaman Strings. http://www.myspace.com/ShamanStrings Please enjoy a starting Video, "Ground." (see in HD)
High! Pablo here, reporting from Inner Space to wish you a great 2009! (we interrupt this comment with a brief announcement): The New Psychedelic Masterpiece "Take Two" Is Here! (16 tracks of sugar coated insanity) Hear 4 new songs! (P.S. the new album is best appreciated on a higher plane....;))
Eliminate all BUTs from your life. Think about what the effect of BUT is in your communication to yourself and others. When we talk to ourselves we often use BUT to distort our reality in a way that leads us to go down familiar negative paths. We tell ourself a postive and then use BUT to take it away a lot of times. We tell someone that we love them and then we spoil it by saying BUT this is happening which our special person interprets as we don't really love them. I am successful BUT I am not as motivated as I want to be. Does this take away from the pleasure of being successful or does it take away the success altogether.
Use the word AND instead; you will find that you are more at peace with yourself, and your friends and family appreciate the positive talk. You will even find it easier to get rid of that other BUTT when you stop using BUT altogether.
Stopping by to say hello and say thanks. Have you ever had one of those weeks that life likes to challenge you at every turn? Well this has been one of them for me. Computer decided to act the something from the terminator series and did not like human interaction and it was like life was saying slow down and focus.
So lets slow down and focus. Do you believe that we attract what we focus on? If so what have you been focusing on things you want or are you putting a lot of thought into stuff you don't want to have. Just by being more aware of what we spend our time thinking about can show us where we are heading at times. Of course you could just say we have to live in this world that the media has created for you and you have to experience everyone's pain that you see and be that martar. I am a little more selfish I guess because I like experiencing everyones joy instead. Nice thing about life is you have a choice so it is up to you.
Many times we spend our life not paying attention to how we operate. Take a minute and ask yourself what state of mind do you spend most of your day in. Do you look for the positive things in life to happen or are you creating a lot of journeys down negative roads? Your body responds to the journeys that you create even when they never come true. Take a minute and think about what kind of experiences you are living that never come true and ask yourself if you would like to change that.
My favorite two words are "What IF" as long as you use them to create fun and excitement. By simply asking yourself "What IF" you can allow your mental state to change. If you practice it enough you can change how you respond and react to any situation.
We are blessed with so many abilities and the only limits we have are the ones the we place upon ourselves. Your life can be anything you want it to be and if you play "What IF" enough you can actually teach your subconscious what choices to make because you rehearsed them enough in your fantastic mind.
Collectiv exhib Guidel (56) France 27 June -5 july ..... Volt festival Hungary 2-3-4-5 July ..... Balaton sound festival Hungary 11-12-13 July ..... Disable party Atelier Gustave Paris 14 17-18-19 July ..... Sziget festival Budapest Hungary 12- 17 August ..... Les loustiks festival Rochefort en terre France 22-23 August ..... Festival des arts Bourrins Rouen France
