THE SECRET DISCO REVOLUTION
Disco. Whether you love it or hate it, it was an undeniably massive cultural phenomenon, offering heady dance-floor escapism — and some priceless polyester outfits. But beneath the reverberating vocals, frenetic strobe lights and four-on-the-floor beat, there was a neon epiphany waiting to emerge.
In The Secret Disco Revolution, director, satirist and comic provocateur Jamie Kastner offers a humorous and insightful investigation into the much-maligned genre, taking up the claim by academic revisionists that disco was in fact a misunderstood culture of protest and a movement of mass liberation for some of American society’s most marginalized citizens: women, African-Americans, and gay men. Could disco enthusiasts actually have been unwitting foot soldiers in a glittering social revolution?
Through interviews with music industry veterans, DJs, academics, and such disco legends as Gloria Gaynor, The Village People, Anita Pointer and Thelma Houston, Kastner crafts a sophisticated and rather offbeat argument about the subversive nature of the dance-floor sensation, and intersperses dramatic "re-enactments" of the revolutionary masterminds behind the music, plotting their mirrorball mesmerism of an unsuspecting public. Perhaps most striking, however, is the gold mine of incredible archival footage that Kastner has unearthed of obscure disco parties, Soul Train episodes, Studio 54 in its heyday, and momentous performances by disco greats, including the late Donna Summer.
The Secret Disco Revolution provides a comprehensive overview of disco from its early days at The Loft in NYC to its conquest of radio, its international impact, the fierce backlash against it, and its enduring legacy. It also shuttles nimbly between kitsch and critical analysis, offering intriguing glimpses into the disparity that exists between practitioners and theorists, and between lived experience and cultural artifact. The result is a meticulously researched documentary that is both cheekily fun and intellectually absorbing.