Interview: Jamie Kastner, The Director Of The Satirical Documentary "The Secret Disco Revolution"

As a native of Buffalo, New York (home of the Worlds Largest Disco, mentioned in the film), I consider myself to be rather well acquainted with the contemporary applications of disco, but what motivated you personally to explore the “secret” implications behind arguably one of the most widely satirized cultural movements in recent history?

I came to the project in a completely roundabout way. I went to propose to a Canadian arts station a film about Harold Pinter, the British playwright, and as I was pitching this, her eyes glazed over. She said,  'Nobody gives a shit about Harold Pinter anymore, how about a film on disco.' and I said 'Okay…' You’ve got to be flexible. I knew the disco era would be great. I worked as a music critic before and I had done some music films and I just knew disco. It is a bit of a no brainer for film. There’s lots to chew on - the music the fashion etc. And then as I began thinking about what I could do differently, a friend of mine  -who actually became the sales agent on the film - sent me a book that had just come out, which was the first of a couple of revisionist histories that were trying to reclaim the disco as a misunderstood time of protest and liberation.

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