Noujaim, Gandhi Premiere 4-Part Burning Man Docuseries on HBO as Festival Marks 40 Years
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Jul 17
Noujaim, Gandhi Premiere 4-Part Burning Man Docuseries on HBO as Festival Marks 40 Years
3 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Jul 17
Summary
HBO this month debuted “The Man Will Burn,” a four-part docuseries by Jehane Noujaim and Vikram Gandhi that uses Burning Man’s private archive to trace the festival from its 1986 beach bonfire roots to today’s Nevada spectacle.
Eight months of clearance work on footage for “The Great Hack” led Noujaim to Burning Man’s leadership and its long-kept archive, which drew Gandhi into a project the pair say aimed to capture an experience often seen as impossible to film.
The series centers on co-founder Larry Harvey and CEO Marian Goodell, then follows Burning Man through Covid-era cancellations, a board revolt backed by Kimbal Musk, and a renegade desert gathering that tested the event’s pull.
It also examines the festival’s contradictions: radical inclusion versus a largely white, affluent crowd, luxury RV camps versus decommodification ideals, and criticism of a nonprofit with a $60 million operating budget and rising ticket costs.
Rather than lean on scandal, the filmmakers present Burning Man as a broader social and spiritual experiment whose appeal now spans backpackers, billionaires and political opposites.