Narrated by Laurie Anderson, Lisa Rover’s “Sisters with Transistors” celebrates the women who pioneered electronic music. “This is the story of women who hear music in their heads. Of radical sounds. This is the story of dreams enabled by technology,” we’re told in a new trailer for the doc.
Featuring the likes of “Doctor Who” theme composer Delia Derbyshire and sound artist Maryanne Amacher, the AFI Fest title revisits how women contributed to the evolution of electronic music and the discrimination they faced along the way. “Sisters with Transistors” also explores how women were “forgotten from the history,” their achievements unacknowledged. “The history of women has been a story of silence, of breaking through the silence with beautiful noise,” Anderson observes in the spot.
Rovner wrote a guest post for Women and Hollywood detailing her unconventional approach to telling this story. “We know women and people of color have been silenced by hierarchies of privilege and oppression, but I’ve also come to believe that it’s the oversimplification of the way we tell stories, our learned longing for a (generally white male) hero that has led to the erasure of their groundbreaking accomplishments. Storytelling is not neutral,” she emphasized. “It either upholds or disrupts the status quo, advances or regresses social justice. Filmmaking is thus always political. That’s why I decided on a form featuring multiple heroines whose stories are told subjectively.”
The filmmaker explained, “As a way of confronting limiting storytelling practices, I opted for a chronology that weaves, a narration that’s not all-knowing. And all throughout the making of this film my choices were questioned,” she recalled. “People kept reverting me to ‘The Hero’s Journey,’ asking me to define the structure as five acts, to connect the subjects to more recognizable names. Why wasn’t it enough that these women had been integral in inventing the devices, techniques, and tropes that redefined the boundaries of music? They were women with agency, who were truly independent; their stories were stories of personal liberation and persistence, something that as a female filmmaker I could really relate to.”
“Sisters with Transistors” opens in virtual cinemas April 23. Check out the trailer for the film and more info about opening weekend programming below.
Opening Weekend Programming *more TBA
Friday, April 23
Following the 8 PM EST Live Screening:
“Electronic Music: The Sound of Liberation” Panel
With Sisters with Transistors subjects Laurie Spiegel and Suzanne Ciani, as well as composers Modular Princess, Moor Mother, Gavilán Rayna Russom and Madame Gandhi. Moderated by Geeta Dayal.
*More details and other events to be announced closer to the date. Join the Facebook event and follow Metrograph & the film on social media for updates.
