In the tradition of Stop Making Sense and Homecoming, Taylor Mac’s 24-Decade History of Popular Music is the rare concert film that leaves you feeling like you were really there. In 2016, theater superstar Mac, with 24 musicians and a team of mischief-makers, staged a 24-hour performance showcasing the popular music of every decade in American history: from “Yankee Doodle Dandy” to Pansy Division, with stops along the way to unpack Stephen Foster’s minstrel songs and remake Laura Branigan’s “Gloria” as an orgy anthem. Decked out in Machine Dazzle’s astonishing costumes, Mac embodies “drag as metaphor:” a white-picket-fence marabou stole for a segment on gentrification; a wig curled around sticks of dynamite to conjure the horrors of war.

Oscar winners Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman (The Times of Harvey Milk, Frameline9; The Celluloid Closet) know when to stay close on Mac’s expressive face and when to pull back to reveal the audience coaxed into eager participants. “An artist’s job is to dream the culture forward,” Mac asserts, and by the end of this emotional psychedelic spectacle, you’ll be transformed too.