Watch both Netflix and Hulu docs about the doomed Fyre Festival, and one gives you a better look inside the fiasco
McFarland is all over both movies thanks to archival footage, but "Fyre Fraud" is the only one that interviewed him on camera. (Hulu paid McFarland to be in the movie.)
However, don't expect much from the footage. Outside of one time when he and the filmmakers have a little back-and-forth over how truthful he's being — at one point he said his team lost a box of keys that would have housed many of the attendees — most of the footage used is of him avoiding answers.
YouTube/Fyre Festival
Both movies touch on the infamous Fyre Festival promotional video that went viral thanks to its beautiful island location and its inclusion of models like Bella Hadid and Emily Ratajkowski. But "Fyre" gets a lot more detailed thanks to the footage it obtained from Matte Projects, the company behind the shoot. The B-roll of the shoot in the documentary gives an incredible glimpse inside not just the making of the video, but how unprepared to pull off the festival McFarland and his team were.
It seems McFarland was a born hustler, and "Fyre Fest" does a great job of showing that, going all the way back to his wheeling and dealing in grade school.
It also goes into greater depth about his ventures before Fyre, including his Black Card wannabe, Magnises, which was touted as a membership club for young professionals in which they would be invited to lavish parties and hard-to-get-into events.
Twitter/@trev4president
Thanks to social media, you don't have to search far to find footage of an event. And Fyre Festival was no different.
If you watch both movies, you'll see a lot of the same footage captured by attendees (yes, both feature the social-media post of the infamous cheese sandwiches they were given) and numerous interviews with people who were there.
There's a lot of financial dishonesty to go around when it comes to McFarland's past. Both movies home in on multiple instances of fraud, but "Fyre Fraud" does a better job of showing that what happened at Fyre Festival didn't come out of nowhere.
Netflix
One of the things "Fyre Fraud" does the least is give details of what it was like to prepare for the festival in the Bahamas.
"Fyre," on the other hand, spends a good amount of time laying out the wild work schedule that went into trying to build the festival from scratch. This makes it all the more painful at the end of the movie when numerous Bahamians talk on camera about never being paid for their work.
Hulu
Both movies examine Fyre Festival, but "Fyre Fraud" has moments when it takes a step back and examines the cultural significance of the debacle — from millennials' love of exclusivity to FOMO, or "fear of missing out."
Believe it or not, while McFarland was awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to fraud in connection to Fyre Festival, he was running another scam, called NYC VIP Access, in which he would offer fake tickets to events like the Met Gala, Coachella, Burning Man, and the Grammys.
Both movies address it, but "Fyre" obtained footage of McFarland running the scam, including one instance where he's feeding lines to the person making phone calls selling the "tickets."
Netflix
It's actually pretty funny: "Fyre" and "Fyre Fraud" end with the same kicker.
The interview subject is interrupted by a phone call, and who's on the other end? Billy McFarland.
In both scenes, the person says, "It's Billy!"
YouTube/Fyre Festival
Both "Fyre" and "Fyre Fraud" are strong documentaries and come at the topic at different angles. But if you want a detailed behind-the-scenes glimpse of what led to the festival becoming a disaster, Netflix's "Fyre" is the one worth your time.
By Jason Guerrasio Jan. 18, 2019
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