The origins of electronic music in cinema go back to the first half of the 20th century. This mix is a homage to some of those moments.It begins with a 1930s Pathé archive example of an early version of what would become a synthesizer, before moving into Dmitri Shostakovich’s first use of theremin on screen in the 1931’s Alone, directed by Grigori Kozintsev. Originally a silent film, Alone gained a soundtrack by Shostakovich just before release once film sound was made available in Russia. Bernard Herrmann’s iconic use of the theremin in The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951) has a wonderful moment in this mix wherein we hear the studio sketches of this score’s creation. Taken from the 2018 reissue of the score, this recording presents studio outtakes and rehearsal moments during the production. Herrmann can be heard in the background prompting different actions from his orchestra.
- 3/28/2022
- MUBI
Electronic music — or, as we think of it today, most popular music — is so taken for granted that it’s easy to forget its original pioneers were iconoclasts of their time. Lisa Rovner’s new documentary Sisters With Transistors, about the women who expanded the technological and artistic possibilities of the form during the 20th century, presents those forebears with grace, accessibility, and a touch of the avant-garde.
Beginning with Clara Rockmore, the violin prodigy who dazzled audiences in the 1920s with her theremin (an electronic instrument played via hand movements through the air,...
Beginning with Clara Rockmore, the violin prodigy who dazzled audiences in the 1920s with her theremin (an electronic instrument played via hand movements through the air,...
- 4/29/2021
- by Claire Shaffer
- Rollingstone.com
Let’s get this out the way early – yes, you are correct, “Sisters with Transistors” is the best title for a documentary you have seen so far this year. Doing exactly what it says on the tin, Lisa Rovner’s debut feature is a secret history of electronic music, told via the women that made it happen. No Kraftwerk, no Robert Moog, and only the most cursory mention of Leon Theremin. Instead we hear – and hear from – ten unsung (or rather un-bzzzzzzzed. There’s little singing going on) geniuses of electronic art, drawn from across continents and musical styles, dating back to classical violinist Clara Rockmore’s adoption of the Theremin in the 1920s, and passing through avant-garde art pieces, movies, TV scores and commercials.
Laurie Anderson provides the narration – herself a pioneer of the form – as Rovner stitches her film together from archive audio and footage, with the odd...
Laurie Anderson provides the narration – herself a pioneer of the form – as Rovner stitches her film together from archive audio and footage, with the odd...
- 4/29/2021
- by Marc Burrows
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
"This is the story of dreams enabled by technology." Metrograph Pictures has released an official trailer for an acclaimed indie documentary titled Sisters with Transistors, marking the feature directorial debut of filmmaker Lisa Rovner. The doc film tells the story of electronic music's female pioneers, composers who embraced machines and their liberating technologies to utterly transform how we produce and listen to music today. Narrated by legendary multimedia artist Laurie Anderson, it showcases the music of and rare interviews with many electronic heroes including: theremin virtuoso Clara Rockmore; "Dr. Who" theme composer and master of tape manipulation, Delia Derbyshire; Daphne Oram, one of the founders of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop; Éliane Radigue, known for her work in musique concrète and tape feedback techniques; sound artist Maryanne Amacher, known for using psychoacoustic phenomena; co-creator of the world’s first electronic film score for Forbidden Planet, Bebe Barron; and others as well.
- 4/20/2021
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Metrograph Pictures has acquired U.S. rights to “Sisters With Transistors,” a documentary about the women who were the pioneers of electronic music. The film will debut virtually on Metrograph’s website on April 23.
Directed by Lisa Rovner, “Sisters With Transistors” had its world premiere at the 2020 South by Southwest Film Festival and later played at AFI Fest.
“‘Sisters With Transistors’ was a true revelation to us,” said Metrograph Pictures’s head of distribution George Schmalz. “The untold story of the groundbreaking women who brought us some of the most revealing music ever created, ‘Sisters With Transistors’ is an impeccably crafted film that we’re thrilled to bring to audiences nationwide.”
The doc spotlights critical but little-known female leaders of electronic music, including Clara Rockmore, Daphne Oram, Bebe Barron, Pauline Oliveros, Delia Derbyshire, Wendy Carlos, Maryanne Amacher, Eliane Radigue, Suzanne Ciani and Laurie Spiegel. “Sisters With Transistors” was narrated by Laurie Anderson.
Directed by Lisa Rovner, “Sisters With Transistors” had its world premiere at the 2020 South by Southwest Film Festival and later played at AFI Fest.
“‘Sisters With Transistors’ was a true revelation to us,” said Metrograph Pictures’s head of distribution George Schmalz. “The untold story of the groundbreaking women who brought us some of the most revealing music ever created, ‘Sisters With Transistors’ is an impeccably crafted film that we’re thrilled to bring to audiences nationwide.”
The doc spotlights critical but little-known female leaders of electronic music, including Clara Rockmore, Daphne Oram, Bebe Barron, Pauline Oliveros, Delia Derbyshire, Wendy Carlos, Maryanne Amacher, Eliane Radigue, Suzanne Ciani and Laurie Spiegel. “Sisters With Transistors” was narrated by Laurie Anderson.
- 2/8/2021
- by Rebecca Rubin
- Variety Film + TV
Among the documentaries premiering at this year’s TriBeCa Film Festival is Stacey Lee’s debut feature-length project, “Underplayed,” about the gender inequality in electronic music. No stranger to the festival, Lee’s documentary short, “Live Fast, Draw Yung,” about a seven-year-old rap portrait artist and his relationship with his father, premiered at TriBeCa in 2015.
“Underplayed” was initiated by Bud Light Canada and presented to Toronto native and music video veteran Director X, who put Lee’s name forward. Shot over a period of six months, Lee brings viewers into the professional and personal worlds of established superstars like TOKiMONSTA and Alison Wonderland, newcomers like Sherelle and hardworking underground artists like Tigerpaw. Beautifully shot and creatively edited, “Underplayed” was made with an all-female crew.
“I’m a female filmmaker in an industry that is also underrepresented,” says Lee. “My own trajectory to being taken seriously was long and hard.”
While...
“Underplayed” was initiated by Bud Light Canada and presented to Toronto native and music video veteran Director X, who put Lee’s name forward. Shot over a period of six months, Lee brings viewers into the professional and personal worlds of established superstars like TOKiMONSTA and Alison Wonderland, newcomers like Sherelle and hardworking underground artists like Tigerpaw. Beautifully shot and creatively edited, “Underplayed” was made with an all-female crew.
“I’m a female filmmaker in an industry that is also underrepresented,” says Lee. “My own trajectory to being taken seriously was long and hard.”
While...
- 3/4/2020
- by Lily Moayeri
- Variety Film + TV
Even 56 years after its original release, Jack Clayton’s 1961 gothic horror film The Innocents has lost none of its ability to disturb. Based on Henry James’ Victorian novella The Turn of the Screw, the film is shot in black and white in CinemaScope (a rare pairing of the two), its wide aspect ratio manipulated through the use of eerie lighting by cinematographer Freddie Francis. The film’s striking imagery is visceral, unsettling and hard to forget, but isn’t the only determinant in the tense atmosphere established within the film. The Innocents innovative soundtrack and sound design is responsible for much of the film’s creepy mood and it is showcased from the film’s very first frame.The Innocents opens with a completely blackened screen, a canvas of nothingness from which the sweet singing of a disembodied little girl suddenly emerges. Her gentle voice is heavily reverbed and amplified...
- 12/27/2017
- MUBI
Bernardo Bertolucci, London
In his early career, which forms the first half of this two-month retrospective, Bertolucci seems to have lived for danger. He was fascinated by eroticism and politics and the connections between them, which, combined with his fluid visual moves, made his films pulse with life. Even before the scandalous Last Tango In Paris, he'd dealt with fascism, murder, terrorism, incest and other hot potatoes in films like The Conformist, La Luna, The Spider's Stratagem and Before The Revolution. His career went widescreen and international, with the star-studded 1900, Oscar triumph The Last Emperor and so on, but the visual mastery never deserted him. Bertolucci himself is in conversation next Saturday and curator David Thompson gives a talk on 14 Apr.
BFI Southbank, SE1, Thu to 30 Apr
Radiophonic Weekend, Bristol
The BBC's unlikely incubator of British electronica gets an aptly boffinish-yet-uber-cool tribute, with films, music, talks and cosmic oscillations from...
In his early career, which forms the first half of this two-month retrospective, Bertolucci seems to have lived for danger. He was fascinated by eroticism and politics and the connections between them, which, combined with his fluid visual moves, made his films pulse with life. Even before the scandalous Last Tango In Paris, he'd dealt with fascism, murder, terrorism, incest and other hot potatoes in films like The Conformist, La Luna, The Spider's Stratagem and Before The Revolution. His career went widescreen and international, with the star-studded 1900, Oscar triumph The Last Emperor and so on, but the visual mastery never deserted him. Bertolucci himself is in conversation next Saturday and curator David Thompson gives a talk on 14 Apr.
BFI Southbank, SE1, Thu to 30 Apr
Radiophonic Weekend, Bristol
The BBC's unlikely incubator of British electronica gets an aptly boffinish-yet-uber-cool tribute, with films, music, talks and cosmic oscillations from...
- 4/1/2011
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
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