Programmed as part of our long term project The Mic Drop and as part of Pride 2021 celebrations, artist Wu Tsang's first feature length film WILDNESS, explores the coming together of generations and communities at Los Angelesâ Silver Platter, one of the cityâs original gay bars and a recognised refuge for the Latinx trans community.
WILDNESS integrates elements of fiction and documentary structures to vividly portray Tsangâs multi-layered relationship with the bar, one that explores her role as an artist and activist, and a member of a younger generation introducing itself into a gay scene that started before the Stonewall riots â the Silver Platterâs birth year is 1963. The impact of gentrification and a changing city on the barâs working class, Hispanic and immigrant patrons is something Tsang implicates herself in when the weekly Wildness party brings art world crowds and attention.
Courtesy of Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), New York.
Directed and Produced by: Wu Tsang. Written by: Wu Tsang and Roya Rastegar. Produced by: Kathy Rivkin. Edited by: Claire Didier and Wu Tsang. Director of Photography: Michelle Lawler. Co-Producers: Daniel Eduvijes Carrera, Felix Endara. Original Music by: Nguzunguzu, Total Freedom, Robbie Williamson.
With: Mariana Marroquin - as the VOICE OF THE SILVER PLATTER. WILDNESS Performers (In order of appearance): Zackary Drucker, Crazy Bitch in a Cave, Camlab, Geneva Jacuzzi, Stefan L. Smith, Amy Linton, We Are the World, Shunda K., Butchie & Fay, Tamechi, Dynasty Handbag, Lucky Dragons, Alex Black & Samuel White, Agassi Ben Gura, Mirror Mirror (with Veronica Celabaum & Ryan Trecartin), Roberto Ramone and The Modernaire, Fine Art Union, Foxy Moron, Iliana Snapper and Ron Athey, Geneva Washington, Leopold Nunan, Patrick (Sax Player).
Free
