Two different Fyre Festival documentaries out this week on Hulu & Netflix
The disaster that was the aborted Fyre Festival captured the interests of many, and has become the subject of multiple documentaries. Netflix releases one this Friday (1/18), and while Hulu announced its own back in April, more details had yet to surface. Surprise: Fyre Fraud, Hulu’s documentary, just dropped days ahead of Netflix’s, and you can watch it right now. Here’s the synopsis:
Fyre Festival was the defining scam of the millennial generation, at the nexus of social media influence, late-stage capitalism, and morality in the post-truth era. Marketing for the 2017 music event went viral with the help of rapper Ja Rule, Instagram stars, and models, but turned epic fail after stranding thousands in the Bahamas. Featuring an exclusive interview with Billy McFarland, the convicted con-man behind the festival; FYRE FRAUD is a true-crime comedy bolstered by a cast of whistleblowers, victims, and insiders going beyond the spectacle to uncover the power of FOMO and an ecosystem of enablers, driven by profit and a lack of accountability in the digital age.
The film, directed by Jenner Furst and Julia Willoughby Nason and produced by Hulu, Cinemart, Billboard and Mic, features an extensive interview with Fyre founder Billy McFarland (who was sentenced to six years in prison back in October). Watch the trailer below.
Netflix’s documentary, Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened, which was directed by Chris Smith (American Movie, The Yes Men), is out Friday (1/18) and Bedford and Bowery reviewed it today, calling it “one of the best studies of a narcissism-driven shitshow since Burden of Dreams” which was the documentary about the making of Werner Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo:
The parallels between the two projects are striking. At one point in Burden of Dreams, Herzog’s engineer resigns because he believes the director’s preferred method of getting a steamship over a ridge will likely get people killed. Herzog just proceeds without him. A similar fate befalls the project manager who tells McFarland that there aren’t adequate resources on Norman’s Cay, where the festival was originally going to be held (McFarland blew the deal by blabbing about how the island had supposedly once belonged to Pablo Escobar). After the project manager raises concerns about everything from plumbing to mosquitos, McFarland simply finds someone who can tell him what he wants to hear.
Though the filmmakers don’t get access to McFarland himself, they get a play-by-play from several Fyre employees, including a shell-shocked event producer who says McFarland talked him into blowing a customs officer for the release of truckloads of bottled water (lucky for him, he didn’t end up having to do the deed).
You can watch the newest trailer for Fyre below as well.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljkaq_he-BU
