TAYLOR MAC’S 24-DECADE HISTORY OF POPULAR MUSIC (FILM)
In the tradition of Stop Making Sense and Homecoming, Taylor Mac’s 24-Decade History of Popular Music is the rare concert film that leaves you feeling like you were really there. In 2016, theater superstar Mac, with 24 musicians and a team of mischief-makers, staged a 24-hour performance showcasing the popular music of every decade in American history: from “Yankee Doodle Dandy” to Pansy Division, with stops along the way to unpack Stephen Foster’s minstrel songs and remake Laura Branigan’s “Gloria” as an orgy anthem. Decked out in Machine Dazzle’s astonishing costumes, Mac embodies “drag as metaphor:” a white-picket-fence marabou stole for a segment on gentrification; a wig curled around sticks of dynamite to conjure the horrors of war.
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HBO Documentary Films in association with Content Superba presents
TAYLOR MAC’S 24-DECADE HISTORY OF POPULAR MUSIC
a Telling Pictures / Pomegranate Arts Production
in association with Fifth Season and Nature’s Darlings.
Directed and produced by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman
Produced by Joel Stillerman, Linda Brumbach, Alisa E. Regas, Taylor Mac, Mari Rivera.
For HBO: executive producers, Nancy Abraham and Lisa Heller; coordinating producer, Anna Klein.
Directors of Photography: Ellen Kuras, Bobby Bukowski, Buddy Squires
Edited by Brian Johnson, ACE
Additional Editing: Jeffrey Friedman, Brian A. Kates
"An artist’s job is to dream the culture forward."