The director of a new documentary about Burning Man festival hopes the film will serve as a tribute to co-founder Larry Harvey, following his death at the age of 70.

The filmmaker, who won a Bafta for his South Bank Show film about artists Gilbert and George, told the PA news agency: “It infused the thing with a sort of a power and emotion that I don’t think it would have had otherwise, because he was obviously the guiding light, the spiritual mentor of all of these artists who had grown up with him and he had helped them, so I think they wanted to give something really special back to him.

“We were on site together for 18 days, it was just the desert and us and no phone  reception it was very human, so every night we told personal stories. It gave this project the meaning that it needed.”