“Profiles in Dust” Documentary Completion
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"Out of Nothing : The DPW Story" Documentary Completion
Burning Man is nothing short of amazing!
The 2023 Event underscored how amazing the Black Rock City and its citizens are in the face of adversity. No one there will ever forget the rain that turned the great Black Rock Desert into a lake.
Who builds and maintains this amazing city?
We, the Profiles in Dust (PID) team, want to introduce you and the world to the amazing humans that make up the Department of Public Works. We will dive into why these incredible crew members keep coming back to work in some of the harshest conditions. We want to show the world the immense effort, dedication, love, and unquestionable talent it takes to build Black Rock City, answering not only how the city is built, but why…
This year, we knew it was time to tell the story of the legendary Department of Public Works (DPW) and document the building of Black Rock City from scratch. For six weeks, our crew met and interviewed dozens of the crew members as they built the infrastructure for the Burning Man Event, in severe weather.
Those new to the Burning Man event, which takes place in the largest dry lakebed in America, the Black Rock desert, often overlook the name of the site: Black Rock City. This temporary city of 75,000, the third largest in the state of Nevada for a week, is a city. A real one. With urban planning, carefully surveyed streets, street names, a city center, streetlights, sanitation, public safety officers, medical services, an airport (88NV) a bus station, a post office and of course an embassy that issues passports.
Out of nothing, this great city rises on an ancient lakebed. Larry Harvey, the event’s founder, when asked why Burning Man wasn’t a two-week event replied “We would kill everyone.” The conditions are that severe.
The tsunami of creative effort that washes onto the playa every year, before the event opens, to survey, build and complete the extensive infrastructure is unparalleled, beautifully organized, and built by a small corps of legendary workers. The Burning Man Department of Public Works.
Were John Steinbeck alive today, he would almost certainly write about the Burning Man Department of Public Works tribe. In the early days of Burning Man there wasn’t infrastructure, and the event was even hard to find on the endless Playa. The organizers had to somehow find the labor to get the big Center Camp tent up and help the growing multitude of ‘Outside Art’ builders erect their astonishing, towering art installations and survive.
The Black Rock Desert somehow attracts an endless stream of adventure seekers, artists, musicians, actors and the like. This stratum of the human race became the group who actually build Black Rock City every year, tears up every bar in both Reno and Gerlach, operates the heavy equipment, endures bizarre and dangerous weather, marginal food, obsolete equipment and minimal compensation. If the French Foreign Legion had a counterpart, it would be the Burning Man Department of Public Works crew.
We, the Profiles in Dust team, are dedicated to illuminating the unknown effort, dedication, love and unquestionable talent it takes to build Black Rock City. We will introduce the global public to the dedicated and immensely capable crew who build the infrastructure of the Burning Man Event, the Department of Public Works. We will dive into why these iconoclastic and indestructible crew members keep coming back to build a city for a week in a place without life. As Larry Harvey would say, “Out of Nothing.”
In order to dedicate the time, talent and equipment for this production, the PID crew self-funded the extensive in-field production costs. To tell the whole story, this must be a feature-length documentary. To complete the project we started, PID needs to raise $25,000 in completion funds. Editing bay rental, graphics production, mixing and mastering costs have increased measurably and are currently out of reach for our group.
Will YOU help us?
We are so grateful for your consideration. Please consider helping us complete this important and highly anticipated production today.
More about PROFILES IN DUST
Profiles in Dust is a volunteer group of filmmakers who have documented the unparalleled creation and installation of large art works at Burning Man since 2011. Tom LaPorte and Two-time Emmy Award Winning Director of Photography Terry Pratt assembled this team of filmmakers 2011 and began this amazing thirteen year effort.
In over 50 completed titles, this team has delivered high-quality, professionally produced short videos on major art installations and the inner workings of how Black Rock City runs, along with stories of the artists and their teams. This body of work has been invaluable for artists and event organizers around the world in understanding the vision, dedication, endurance and camaraderie of the artists who bring their work to a desolate, punishing desert in Nevada.
Further titles detail Burning Man’s stelar efforts in environmental technology, regulatory compliance, and the history of Burning Man.
Organizer
Profiles In Dust Terence C Pratt
Organizer
Three Rivers, CA