Spark: A Burning Man Story
Spark: A Burning Man Story Image
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Metascore
55

Mixed or average reviews - based on 9 Critics What's this?

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  • Summary: 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. Rooted in principles of self-expression, self-reliance and community effort, Burning Man has grown famous for stirring ordinary people to shed their nine-to-five existence and act on their dreams. Spark takes us behind the curtain with Burning Man organizers and participants, revealing a year of unprecedented challenges and growth. When ideals of a new world based on freedom and inclusion collide with realities of the “default world,” we wonder which dreams can survive.… Expand
  • Director: Jessie Deeter
  • Genre(s): Action, Biography, Drama, Documentary
  • Rating: Not Rated
  • Runtime: 90 min
  • More Details and Credits »

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 9
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 9
  3. Negative: 1 out of 9
  1. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marc Savlov
    Sep 11, 2013
    78
    Spark, however, is the best of the lot when it comes to attempting to grok the burn and the burners.
  2. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Marc Mohan
    Sep 9, 2013
    75
    Parts of “Spark” can seem like an ad for Burning Man, but the film digs deep enough into the pressures and challenges facing its organizers and attendees to be a worthy exploration of a unique phenomenon, even for those who wouldn’t be caught dead wearing just glitter and a thong in 110 degree heat.
  3. Arizona Republic
    Reviewed by: Kerry Lengel
    Aug 22, 2013
    70
    It’s a compelling topic, even if directors Steve Brown and Jessie Deeter don’t dig deeply into the cultural and psychological significance of it.
  4. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Pete Vonder Haar
    Aug 13, 2013
    60
    As an official history, Spark shines adequate light; I just wish it had spent a little more time on the shadows.
  5. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Robert Abele
    Aug 16, 2013
    60
    For such a hippie-ish wingding originally designed to discourage the buying and selling of anything, "Spark" has decidedly bought into its subject and has no qualms hawking it to moviegoers.
  6. The Dissolve
    Reviewed by: Nick Schager
    Aug 22, 2013
    40
    The doc proves more concerned with promotion than analysis or inquiry, thereby making it a disingenuous non-fiction portrait: an inhibited look at an uninhibited event.
  7. Slant Magazine
    Reviewed by: Nick Usen
    Aug 11, 2013
    38
    The doc doesn't take the time to examine why Burning Man inspires such a level of fanaticism, overshadowing human interest with a gluttony of B roll.

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