Plantiana Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

WillSushyMedia This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

Ella-May O'Brien Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Edwin The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

TxMike I have Netflix streaming movies and I came upon this title recently. I started out knowing nothing of the "Burning Man" phenomenon, however I heard on the news last week (the 2014 edition just finished) that one person died after being run over by a vehicle. When you see the film you realize how easy that is.What is "Burning Man"? Well it started in 1986 with 20 people on Baker Beach in San Francisco. They burned a wooden man. By 1991 there was 250 and they had moved to Black Rock, public desert land in Nevada. By 1997 there were 10,000, by 2000 there were 25,000, and now they are up to near 70,000. At the end, at night is always a burning of a wooden man, in recent years with pyrotechnics too. But what is "Burning Man" all about? Their website says things like "You belong here and you participate. You're there to breathe art. Imagine the man, greeting you, neon and benevolence, watching over the community. You're here to build a community that needs you and relies on you. You're here to survive. You're here to create. Since nobody at Burning Man is a spectator, you're here to build your own new world. You're here to experience. You're here to celebrate. On Saturday night, we'll burn the Man. As the procession starts, the circle forms, and the man ignites, you experience something personal, something new to yourself, something you've never felt before. It's an epiphany, it's primal, it's newborn. And it's completely individual."When you watch the film you see a strange assortment of people in a strange range of clothing. Or costumes. Or nothing on at all. It seems that nothing is off limits as long as it isn't clearly illegal or an affront to another person. It is in the desert, it is hot, dry, and dusty. But everyone there seems to be having a good time. With little sleep.But all this happens only through a very high level of organization and planning. Tickets to the event, for those who can get them, were $380 in 2013, plus $40 for a vehicle permit. If you assume 58,000 pay, at an average of $400 each, that brings in a bit over $23 Million. That is a big, expensive event. But if you also look at expenses, for 2013 it totaled about $27 Million. Just the cost of the Black Rock permit is $4.5 Million. The cost of the week is about $11 Million. And, yearly about $7 Million is allocated to "payroll". But what exactly is "Burning Man"? I'm not really sure, and I don't intend to try to experience it. This film does a pretty good job of showing some of its history, many of the people involved in making it happen, and footage from the 2012 event. Worth a viewing for anyone who is curious about "Burning Man."

gavin6942 Each year, 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. You have the anti-Wall Street vibe, the "gift economy" focus. Take this versus the millionaire CEOs who get involved and it is quite the walking contradiction. The anti-corporate Burning Man is itself basically funded by corporations.I only knew of this festival indirectly, but now I see what goes on in the board room and in the field. Wow, what a spectacle!

colin-j-parker This evening a couple friends and I all gathered together to check out Spark: A Burning Man Story at Cinema 21 here in Portland, OR. We were all excited and still glowing from our experiences a couple weeks back in Black Rock City. This year my partner and I started a theme camp and this process provided a whole new appreciation for the Burning Man experience than simply being a participant could provide. I went into this film looking forward to sounding my experiences against a backdrop of historical information and the cinematically captured spirit of my favorite festival on Earth. Unfortunately I was sorely disappointed. The filmmakers focused a surprising amount of energy on the negativity, stress, drama, and frustration that SOME people experience, to varying degrees, in their work on Burning Man. While some of the artists and administrators that were interviewed maintained a balanced and positive outlook, the bulk of them were so mired in difficulties and stressful situations that their best selves remained hidden from the camera. In addition, emotionally dramatic topics such as the 2012 ticket fiasco, the 'plug-and-play' camps, and the Occupy Wall-Street art played central roles in this film, but are not central to the spirit of Burning Man. In fact, historically, ticketing has been very well handled by the BMorg, 'plug-and-play' camps have a very minimal footprint on the overall city, and the Occupy art was a strong deviation from the status quo at Burning Man where protest art is uncommon, especially protest art that encourages emotions such as anger and animosity. I felt the choice of these topics was strange, but was hoping that later in the film we would be treated to equally compelling footage of the life-affirming, positive qualities of Burning Man.This wasn't so. While there was certainly a substantial amount of eye-candy (HD footage of the playa and its beautiful inhabitants), these scenes were really just interludes between additional downer shots of the Occupy or PlayaSkool folks struggling on the Playa. The only redeeming thing in this film about Burning Man was Burning Man itself, with its wonderful 10 principles and guiding ideals that still managed to shine through the rather poor lens this film held up to it. If you watched this movie and felt encouraged to experience what Burning Man has to offer, then you absolutely must go, because the reality is infinitely better than this simulacrum.

helandlee Burning Man means myriad things to multitudes of people. I would say that the ones who have the most difficulty defining the experience to a "virgin", are probably the most accurate. In my encounters, people who are the most opinionated, are the ones who have never participated. There are wonderful aerial shots and time lapse sequences accompanied by a brilliant soundtrack. And even though the film is long, I would have liked some coverage of the theme camps.The filmmakers have achieved what others have long been striving to convey- a comprehensive overview of the essence of Burning Man. A veteran and a "newbie" team up to give us unprecedented access to the movers and shakers of the organization...filling in the rich history of an event that will surely change your life forever.