Sisters with Transistors

"Sisters With Transistors" (2020 release; 86 min.) is a documentary about the female pioneers of electronic music. As the movie opens, one of them comments that "technology is a tremendous liberator", allowing women to work on their own without depending on the approval or assistance of men (who dominate the industry). We then go back in time to the early 20th century and the origins of electronic music. At this point we are 10 min into the movie.

Couple of comments: this is the feature length debut of writer-producer-director Lisa Rovner. She digs deep into the origins of electronic music from the female perspective, and along the way profiles the key pioneers in this subgenre, including amont others Suzanne Ciani, Clara Rockmore, Delia Derbyshire, Pauline Oliveros, Wendy Carlos, and Laurie Spiegel. The movie does not go beyond the mid-70s, and hence no Laurie Anderson (who is the documentary's narrator). The documentary reminds us how incredibly controversial electronic music was. In fact, it wasn't referred to as "music" in the early days, but instead it was called things like "sonic propositions", and "electronic tonalities". Can you imagine that? The other thing that struck me while watching this, is how much archive footage the film makers were able to dig up on this, absolutely incredible. As a fan of electronic music going back to the early days of artists like Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze (yes, I know, all guys), I was more than delighted with the insights provided by this documentary.

"Sisters With Transistors" premiered at the 2020 SXSW festival to immediate acclaim. There is good reason why this documentary is rated 97% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. It played very briefly here in Cincinnati at some point in 2021 and I kicked myself for having missed it. Thankfully, the documentary recently started streaming on Showtime On Demand and Showtime Anytime, where I caught it. If you have any interest in electronic music whatsoever, I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion. I guarantee you won't be disappointed.