Contemporary Color

Former Talking Heads frontman David Byrne added to his growing filmography of ambitious, left-field concert movies by conceiving this superb documentary, directed by brothers Turner Ross and Bill Ross IV. The film reflects the veteran art-rocker’s involvement in the arcane subculture of color guard troupes, typically high school students who perform highly choreographed formation dance routines at sports events. In 2015, Byrne organized and hosted two festival shows, featuring ten troupes dancing to new music by himself, St. Vincent, Tune-Yards, Nelly Furtado and others. A kaleidoscopic record of these grand-scale collaborative shows, CONTEMPORARY COLOR is humane, uplifting and spectacular.