HBO's 'The Man Will Burn' Docuseries Chronicles Burning Man
Get the Culture newsletter
Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.
- HBO premiered 'The Man Will Burn,' a four-part docuseries by Jehane Noujaim and Vikram Gandhi, drawing on a vast privately compiled Burning Man film archive to trace the festival's arc through COVID, a board revolt, and climate change.
- The documentary frames Burning Man as a love story between late co-founder Larry Harvey (died 2018) and CEO Marian Goodell, who faced pressure from Kimbal Musk and a faction of board members to step aside after canceling the festival for a second straight pandemic year.
- Burning Man has been held at Black Rock City, a temporary community 100 miles from Reno built and torn down each year, operating under principles including decommodification, radical inclusion, and civic responsibility.
- The festival has long struggled with perceptions that it caters primarily to wealthy white attendees, with growing stratification between backpackers in pole tents and A-listers dropping tens of thousands on air-conditioned luxury RVs.
- The non-profit behind Burning Man runs a $60 million operating budget, with some festivalgoers questioning how high ticket prices can climb amid broader cost pressures.
- Noujaim and Gandhi opted for a 'thorough and balanced view' of festival life rather than sensationalizing scandals like pilgrim deaths, nudity, or the muddy 2023 playa disaster that had cable news viewers calling for a National Guard rescue.
Why it matters: Burning Man's $60 million operating budget and the widening gap between backpackers in pole tents and A-listers in luxury RVs have fueled accusations the festival has lost its countercultural soul — and the board revolt against CEO Marian Goodell, led by Kimbal Musk during the pandemic, shows those tensions playing out at the highest organizational levels, crystallized for a wide audience through this HBO series.
