Taylor Mac has been called “One of the most exciting theater artists of our time and a future theater legend.” Mac’s performance piece, A 24-Decade History of Popular Music, by Taylor Mac, was an inspired bardic creation that involved the audience in a marathon musical journey that challenges the persistent societal demons of racism, sexism and homophobia. The production was a finalist for the 2017 Pulitzer Prize in Drama.
Directors Rob Epstein & Jeffrey Friedman’s new documentary feature, Taylor Mac’s 24-Decade History of Popular Music, is a riotous concert film that documents Mac’s exuberant, ostentatiously queer 24-hour musical performance in New York City, featuring skilled musicians, creative costumes, and the American myth as recounted through sailor’s ditties, disco, and sugary pop tunes.
On June 28, following the DGA Special Projects Documentary Series screening in Los Angeles, Epstein & Friedman sat down with Documentary Series Subcommittee Chair Ondi Timoner (Mapplethorpe) to discuss the making of the film and they were joined onstage by the subject of their film, Taylor Mac.
“The filmmaking challenge was to present the monumental experience of the marathon aspect of the performance but not fatigue our audience because it’s a very different requirement for the film-going audience than what’s going on in the theater,” said Epstein.
“One of the things that's so special about Taylor's work is that he’s able to address really uncomfortable issues and do it in a way that doesn’t make you feel like you're being lectured,” said Friedman. “Somehow there's this community building that's happening and it’s making you understand uncomfortable realities in a way that's somehow nourishing.”
Epstein & Friedman’s other directorial credits include the feature films Lovelace and Howl; the documentary features Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice and State of Pride; and episodes of Ten Days That Unexpectedly Changed America and Crime & Punishment. They were nominated for an Academy Award for their 2019 short subject documentary, End Game; for a Primetime Emmy Award for their 1996 special, The Celluloid Closet; and they won the 2000 Sundance Film Festival Documentary Directing Award for their film, Paragraph 175.
Both Epstein & Friedman have been DGA members since 2002.