Renegade filmmaker Charles Atlas (who worked extensively with the late choreographer Merce Cunningham) introduces his 2002 documentary The Legend of Leigh Bowery. Artist/designer/performer/provocateur Leigh Bowery designed costumes and performed with the "enfante terrible" of British dance Michael Clark, designed one of a kind outrageous costumes and creations for himself, ran one of the most outrageous clubs of the 1980s London club scene (later immortalized in Boy George's Broadway musical "Taboo"), and was the muse of the great British painter Lucian Freud. The film includes interviews with Damien Hirst, Bella Freud, Cerith Wyn Evans, Boy George, and Leigh Bowery’s widow, Nicola Bowery. Atlas will engage in audience Q&A immediately following the film. Co-presented with the UM Institute for the Humanities, which hosts Charles Atlas's video installation Joints Array in February 2012.

This program is part of the UMS on Film series designed to expand our understanding of the artists and cultures represented on the UMS season. Each film is introduced by a cultural expert and reveals something of the emotions and ideas behind the creative process. For more information, please visit http://www.ums.org.