Burning Man Turns 20 and Ventures Out of Nevada's Black Rock Desert... Into your Living Room

The Mysteries of America's Most Legendary Counter-Cultural Festival Revealed in New Documentary DVD

Lightyear Entertainment and Gone Off Deep Productions Announce DVD Release of "Burning Man: Beyond Black Rock" -- in Stores Nationwide Aug. 1

NEW YORK, NY -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 06/19/2006 --

• "... brisk, funny and insightful... the filmmaking is exhilarating."
• --Variety
• "Must be experienced!"

--American Film Institute

• "A stirring, hilarious and wise account of smart, witty misfits yearning for release from 'the default world' and expending inordinate amounts of creativity and ingenuity to do so."

--L.A. Weekly

• Burn it and they will come. For two decades, the populist phenomenon known as Burning Man has evolved from a fringe counterculture event into a global community of artists and social revolutionaries.

Now, on its 20th anniversary, Lightyear Entertainment and Gone Off Deep Productions announce the August 1st DVD release of "Burning Man: Beyond Black Rock" -- a feature length documentary that goes behind the scenes of this social revolution and gives an unprecedented look at the philosophy that fuels it, the tireless efforts that give it form and the transcendent experience that makes it a worldwide cultural force. The DVD will be distributed in the U.S. by WEA and in Canada by Koch Canada.

Each summer, a massive city rises in the barren Nevada desert like a phoenix from the ashes... then one week later is completely erased from the landscape in a blazing inferno. The temporary infrastructure of Black Rock City, with a population of more than 35,000, provides everything from emergency services, electricity and street signs to daily newspapers and radio broadcasts.

For seven days and nights it stands as a community free of commerce, bound by a social contract of tolerance and cooperation and dedicated to the transforming power of art and self-expression -- drawing both the free spirited and the mainstream. Then it disappears, without a trace.

"Burning Man: Beyond Black Rock" reveals the impressive scale of the event, from the art pieces that pepper the barren landscape to the incredible pyrotechnics of the event's climactic roasting... the burning of "The Man," a 40-foot effigy. What does it mean? "It's whatever you want it to be," said Gone Off Deep producer Michael S. Wilson. "Some people go burn their fathers, some people burn organized religion, some burn George Bush."

"Gone Off Deep captured the Burning Man organization and its community in a very captivating way, synthesizing where we came from, where we are, and where we are going," said Larry Harvey, founder, visionary and executive director of the Burning Man organization. "We are at an important crossroads, as the event is evolving into a movement and as we prepare to take the culture, principles, and particularly the interactive art of Burning Man out of the desert and into the communities of the world."

Granted unprecedented access to the inner workings of the Burning Man organization, the filmmakers spent 18 months with the founders, organizers, artists and participants. The film's official web site is www.burningmanmovie.com