The documentary STOP MAKING SENSE is considered one of the greatest concert films of all time. The new film CONTEMPORARY COLOR shows David Byrne’s new fascination: color-guard. By asking his musician friends to lend their talent to the routines created by teams of dancing, twirling teens, Byrne shows the beauty of an art form that is usually relegated to a high-school football game afterthought.
Co-director Turner Ross spoke to A Moveable Feast about how the project came about, “It was the summer of 2014. One of our producers Josh Penn had been in touch with David and his producing partner about this crazy show they were thinking about and they were trying to line up a film component. We heard about the show they had been planning — they had it in the works for some time — and we took a minute to digest what that was. It was an awesome concept and not like anything we had been aware of. Given that it’s a unique situation and the canon of concert films is so well-established, we didn’t want to make a straightforward doc and we didn’t want to make the predictable narrative of leading up to the event and the big show. So we took a little time to think about what it might look like for us to make a film and we came back to them with some ideas — we weren’t sure that they were going to go for — make it more like a sporting event and have sports announcers and be moving through the space and deviating away from the show. they were really into it and we set off for the next year going around to schools and these events — private practices and the world championships with these teens — getting to know some of the performers. It was a wild journey leading up to what became the filming of the shows.”
