Xiqu Centre, West Kowloon Cultural District | WestK Cabaret Festival: Documentary Screening – Taylor Mac’s 24-Decade History of Popular Music

Description

An extravagant documentary capturing a once-in-a-lifetime performance art concert

“I wanted to make something so big it couldn’t be ignored” – Taylor Mac

Join us for our special free screenings of the documentary concert film Taylor Mac’s 24-Decade History of Popular Music – and be beguiled by one of the most impressive performance events in the history of New York’s off-Broadway cabaret scene.

This riotous film documents New York theatre legend Taylor Mac’s joyous, challenging and ostentatiously queer 24-hour performance art concert charting American history through reinterpretations of popular songs, cutting banter, drag spectacle and queer ritual.

The original theatrical extravaganza – featuring 24 piece orchestra and over 200 performers, eye-popping costumes by designer Machine Dazzle, and liberating audience participation – was both a cathartic celebration and a radical format for creating community.

This film, directed by Oscar-winning filmmakers Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman (The Celluloid Closet), condenses that one-time-only marathon event – 246 songs, one decade per hour, from 1776 to the present – into 106 captivating minutes. Mixing performance clips and off-stage interviews with Mac and collaborating artists, the documentary reveals how the show challenged the American myth and the audience’s own internalised homophobia.

As the film unfolds, Mac’s uniquely charismatic presence, powerful voice, and subjective take on history, build a whimsical, maximalist world that is poignant, subversive and full of love.

HBO Documentary Films in association with Content Superba presents TAYLOR MAC’S 24-DECADE HISTORY OF POPULAR MUSIC, a Telling Pictures and Pomegranate Arts Production in association with Fifth Season and Nature’s Darlings. 

Free admission. Advance online registration available. Limited capacity on a first come, first served basis.

Language:In English with Chinese and English surtitles

Register here: https://www.art-mate.net/tc/doc/95017

Director: Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman

Producer: Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman, Joel Stillerman, Linda Brumbach, Alisa Regas, Taylor Mac, Mari Rivera

Cinematographer: Ellen Kuras, Bobby Bukowski, Buddy Squires

Editor: Brian Johnson, ACE

Associate Producer: Marita Gomsrud

Cast: Taylor Mac, Machine Dazzle, Matt Ray, Niegel Smith, Anastasia Durasova