Burning Man: The Musical

This film was set to be a fun, potentially cliche, diverse, creative and welcoming musical representation of the annual Burning Man gathering in the Black Rock Desert. Following the release of the original 2015 trailer my hopes were high.

What we were instead presented with was an uninspired, formulaic and insulting musical with songs that sounded like they were produced underwater. Not to mention they were unpalatable radio pop versions of the original songs from the 2015 trailer. Painfully tedious to endure.

The cast, ordinary and uninteresting people who appear lifeless on the screen. Not fabulous actors, not fabulous singers. Each character portrayed an often offensive and depreciatory version of some Burning Man cliche. The veteran burner, the Tech CEO, the virgin. Each character was at best an inaccurate representation of Burning Man culture and and frankly made the event look like a drug fueled, wealthy elitist orgy in the desert. This film disparaged the culture, arts, music, tradition and values that the Burning Man community upholds and defends.

The relentless visual effects made me sick. They succeeded only in obviously trying to hide their poor quality sets with an even worse color filter over the screen the entire film. The clear lack of diversity both in music and lyrics between the songs was aggravating. The nonexistent storyline marginalized and embarrassed entire populations of upstanding and good citizens of Black Rock City. To them, this film owes an apology.

Beyond that, the dialogue was completely unbelievable, and the content of the film painted a picture of the Burning Man gathering so insulting to the organization and every participant and creator. To release this film for profit was ludicrous and disrespectful and criminal.