AUSTIN, TX- Two back-to-back premieres this week during Texas’ popular music and film festival SXSW shine the spotlight on popular black culture in the 1990s in Atlanta.
The first installment of a three-part docuseries, Magic City: An American Fantasy, drew Atlanta royalty like T.I. and 2 Chainz to the screening. Recent Grammy Award winner Killer Mike, who professes to have partied with politicians and preachers alike at the popular Atlanta strip club Magic City, wonders aloud if this “saints and sinners” dynamic brings necessary balance to the city. Executive producers Drake and Jermaine Dupri are also among the celebrities featured in the series. Drake issues a challenge to boxer Floyd Mayweather, while Shaquille O’Neal recalls signing his groundbreaking 1996 NBA contract for $120 million at Magic City because the party was so live he could not be persuaded to leave the venue.
In a Q&A after the screening, filmmakers Cole Brown and director Charles Todd said they intend the series to be a celebration – of the athleticism of the dancers, of the entrepreneurial prowess of Magic City’s charismatic founder, Michael “Magic” Barney – rather than a stereotypical sex work documentary.
The result, at least in the first installment, is an almost unnervingly cheery look at the strip club underworld. While there is nudity, the framing is not overly sexual or explicit. Former dancer and Magic City legend Gigi Maguire said after the premiere that she had agreed to participate in a tasteful topless scene because she believed in the filmmakers’ artistic vision.
Still, absent is any real introspection or insight into the decisions that have led these women into this line of work, and the piece seems to gloss over any hint at a dark side of the sex…
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