Conversations at the Edge: Current Schedule

2012, Wu Tsang, USA, HDCAM, 75 minutes + discussion
Wu Tsang in person!

Rooted in the tropical underground of Los Angeles nightlife, magical realism meets documentary in Wu Tsang’s Wildness (2012), a portrait of Los Angeles’s Silver Platter, a landmark bar that has been home to Latin/LGBT immigrant communities since the 60s. Narrated from the perspective of the bar itself, the film meditates on the new relationships and conflicts that materialize as a group of young artists (DJs Total Freedom & NGUZUNGUZU) begins a weekly performance and dance party at Silver Platter. Tsang illuminates how difference can be a catalyst for both strife and growth as the party’s growing popularity raises issues of safety and belonging for all of its members.

Wu Tsang (b. 1982, Worcester, MA) is an SAIC alumnus, artist, filmmaker, and performer based in Los Angeles. His work has been shown at the 2012 Whitney Biennial and "Ungovernables" Triennial at the New Museum in New York, the ICA Philadelphia, MOCA Los Angeles, and upcoming at the 2012 Gwanju Biennial in South Korea. His first feature film Wildness (2012) premiered this year at MoMA's Documentary Fortnight in New York, SXSW (South by Southwest) in Austin and HOT DOCS in Toronto, with support from Good Works Foundation, Frameline, Wexner Center for the Arts, IFP Labs, Art Matters, Tiffany Foundation, and Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.