David Byrne and twirling flags are together at last in the Contemporary Color trailer

As a musician, visual artist, filmmaker, and author, David Byrne has sung about buildings, made buildings sing, and given beauty and meaning to the average American shopping mall. In 2015, this fixation with overlooked or undervalued cultural fixtures led to Contemporary Color, a multi-venue performance celebrating color guard, the flag-twirling, rifle-tossing, saber-thrusting accompaniment to countless halftime shows and marching bands across the United States. At the Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn and the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, 10 color guards collaborated with a roster of musical artists including St. Vincent, Ad-Rock, Blood Orange’s Devonté Hynes, and Byrne himself. The performances and preparations were documented by directors Bill Ross and Ross, for a film that premiered at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival and begins a theatrical run on March 3. Watch the official trailer for its bright pops of color, acrobatic derring do, and footage of Byrne’s amusingly clumsy attempt to handle a color guard rifle.