It's happened several times in movie history that there are two films of the same genre, on basically the same subject, released within a few months of each other. Think Dante's Peak and Volcano in 1997. Or The Prestige and The Illusionist in 2006. These things sometimes happen. But I can't recall a time when two documentaries covering the exact same bizarre event were released in such close proximity. But this is exactly what happened when two documentaries detailing the disastrous Fyre Festival, which happened in spring 2017, were both released within four days of each other, earlier in 2019. The wife and I were curious, so we watched one. We only grew more curious, so we went ahead and took in the other the following week.
As you would guess, the topic and a fair number of the details covered are the same in both documentaries. They trace the basic story of the Fyre Festival - a music festival hastily thrown together as a means to lure wealthy, image-obsessed young people to an island in the Bahamas for what was supposed to be "the next Coachella." It aspired be the trendiest, most exclusive festival of the future. The stated, greater purpose of all of this was to promote a new website and phone app - the Fyre app - which would allow people to find and book top-level entertainers for various social functions. What the Festival became was one of the most infamous and poorly-executed scams in recent history.
The basics of how it all devolved into disaster are as follows: a young "entrepreneur" named Billy McFarland had a big idea. McFarland had been making what seemed like massive amounts of money through a specialty credit card in New York City. Several years after the rather short-but-lucrative life of the card, it became clear that it was a scam that not only gave McFarland the appearance of being quite wealthy, but also gave him enough surface credibility to launch the idea for Fyre. Together with hip-hop star Ja Rule and other investors, McFarland had a vision for the grand music festival. While such things normally take years to plan and execute, McFarland and Ja Rule thought they could pull it off in roughly six months. Not only that, but they backed themselves into a major corner by going full steam ahead with an all-too effective marketing ploy on Twitter. The buzz grew at a dizzying rate, as did the number of people - mostly young, party- and image-obsessed millenials - who were paying thousands of dollars to be a part of the spectacle.
As the hype grew, McFarland and the organizers whom he hastily gathered together scrambled to put together all of the countless resources needed to fulfill the promises they had made to their customers. Suffice it to say that not one of their grand promises was met. The greater problem was that they admitted nothing, either to themselves or any of the festival-goers, until the enthusiastic crowds had already flown to the Bahamas, expecting a festival of mind-blowing proportions and ending up in refugee tents, eating two-dollar cheese sandwiches, waiting on promised musical acts who never arrived.
The two documentaries cover mostly the same key plot points in this tale of 21st century, all-American hype and millenial fear of missing out. They do differ, though, on their focus and access to some of the players involved:
Fyre (2019)
Director: Chris Smith
This was Netflix's offering.
Of the two docs, this one does the better job of telling the story of the origins of Fyre and logically walking us viewers through how the disaster unfolded. It also has plenty of self-shot footage of McFarland, Ja Rule, and their gaggle of "organizers" at almost every stage of the preparations, such as they were. It certainly gives you a certain sense of how these guys were going about their business (or not, in several cases), and offers enough for one to form an opinion of their character and approach to business.
I'm certainly glad that I watched this documentary first, as it laid the ground work to better understand the other:
Fyre Fraud (2019)
Director: Jenner Ferst and Julia Willoughby Nason
The strength of Fyre Fraud is the closer access to McFarland, the mastermind behind the entire festival fiasco. Unlike Fyre, the film-makers actually got McFarland to sit down for a one-on-one interview about the entire debacle. It is through this interview that is becomes abundantly clear that McFarland is the classic pathological liar and fast-talking con man who knows exactly how to talk a great game in order to increase his wealth and prestige. That is, as long as nobody is looking too closely at what he's saying or doing. And it is rather clear, from watching both documentaries, that everyone involved with McFarland and the entire Fyre Festival idea was too busy thinking about becoming rich and/or famous to bother truly scrutinizing his pipedream.
While the insight into McFarland's character is the great strength of Fyre Fraud, it is not nearly as coherent as Fyre, in terms of building up the disaster that was the festival. If I had watched this documentary first, I would have had far more questions than I did after watching Netflix's offering.
Final Thoughts
This was really a fascinating moment in modern history, and one that I don't remember hearing about when it unfolded back in early 2017. It is the type of debacle that could only have happened in the current place and time, in the image- and wealth-obsessed culture of the United States, and during the time of unchecked social media pervasiveness. It is honestly such a curious case that both my wife and I still had questions about it all, even after watching over three hours of footage from these two documentaries.
Anyone who thinks they want to dip their toes in the water should do what we did - watch Fyre on Netflix first. If you're still curious, go ahead and watch Fyre Fraud on Hulu. The two, in that order, paint a reasonably clear picture of everything that unfolded and much of the aftermath. It wouldn't surprise me if we get a follow-up documentary in another few years, given that some of the fallout from the entire affair is yet to completely land.
As you would guess, the topic and a fair number of the details covered are the same in both documentaries. They trace the basic story of the Fyre Festival - a music festival hastily thrown together as a means to lure wealthy, image-obsessed young people to an island in the Bahamas for what was supposed to be "the next Coachella." It aspired be the trendiest, most exclusive festival of the future. The stated, greater purpose of all of this was to promote a new website and phone app - the Fyre app - which would allow people to find and book top-level entertainers for various social functions. What the Festival became was one of the most infamous and poorly-executed scams in recent history.
The basics of how it all devolved into disaster are as follows: a young "entrepreneur" named Billy McFarland had a big idea. McFarland had been making what seemed like massive amounts of money through a specialty credit card in New York City. Several years after the rather short-but-lucrative life of the card, it became clear that it was a scam that not only gave McFarland the appearance of being quite wealthy, but also gave him enough surface credibility to launch the idea for Fyre. Together with hip-hop star Ja Rule and other investors, McFarland had a vision for the grand music festival. While such things normally take years to plan and execute, McFarland and Ja Rule thought they could pull it off in roughly six months. Not only that, but they backed themselves into a major corner by going full steam ahead with an all-too effective marketing ploy on Twitter. The buzz grew at a dizzying rate, as did the number of people - mostly young, party- and image-obsessed millenials - who were paying thousands of dollars to be a part of the spectacle.
As the hype grew, McFarland and the organizers whom he hastily gathered together scrambled to put together all of the countless resources needed to fulfill the promises they had made to their customers. Suffice it to say that not one of their grand promises was met. The greater problem was that they admitted nothing, either to themselves or any of the festival-goers, until the enthusiastic crowds had already flown to the Bahamas, expecting a festival of mind-blowing proportions and ending up in refugee tents, eating two-dollar cheese sandwiches, waiting on promised musical acts who never arrived.
The two documentaries cover mostly the same key plot points in this tale of 21st century, all-American hype and millenial fear of missing out. They do differ, though, on their focus and access to some of the players involved:
Fyre (2019)
Director: Chris Smith
This was Netflix's offering.
Of the two docs, this one does the better job of telling the story of the origins of Fyre and logically walking us viewers through how the disaster unfolded. It also has plenty of self-shot footage of McFarland, Ja Rule, and their gaggle of "organizers" at almost every stage of the preparations, such as they were. It certainly gives you a certain sense of how these guys were going about their business (or not, in several cases), and offers enough for one to form an opinion of their character and approach to business.
I'm certainly glad that I watched this documentary first, as it laid the ground work to better understand the other:
Director: Jenner Ferst and Julia Willoughby Nason
The strength of Fyre Fraud is the closer access to McFarland, the mastermind behind the entire festival fiasco. Unlike Fyre, the film-makers actually got McFarland to sit down for a one-on-one interview about the entire debacle. It is through this interview that is becomes abundantly clear that McFarland is the classic pathological liar and fast-talking con man who knows exactly how to talk a great game in order to increase his wealth and prestige. That is, as long as nobody is looking too closely at what he's saying or doing. And it is rather clear, from watching both documentaries, that everyone involved with McFarland and the entire Fyre Festival idea was too busy thinking about becoming rich and/or famous to bother truly scrutinizing his pipedream.
While the insight into McFarland's character is the great strength of Fyre Fraud, it is not nearly as coherent as Fyre, in terms of building up the disaster that was the festival. If I had watched this documentary first, I would have had far more questions than I did after watching Netflix's offering.
Final Thoughts
This was really a fascinating moment in modern history, and one that I don't remember hearing about when it unfolded back in early 2017. It is the type of debacle that could only have happened in the current place and time, in the image- and wealth-obsessed culture of the United States, and during the time of unchecked social media pervasiveness. It is honestly such a curious case that both my wife and I still had questions about it all, even after watching over three hours of footage from these two documentaries.
Anyone who thinks they want to dip their toes in the water should do what we did - watch Fyre on Netflix first. If you're still curious, go ahead and watch Fyre Fraud on Hulu. The two, in that order, paint a reasonably clear picture of everything that unfolded and much of the aftermath. It wouldn't surprise me if we get a follow-up documentary in another few years, given that some of the fallout from the entire affair is yet to completely land.
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