It won the grand prize at Fame 2021, the international festival of films about music, with flying colors: "Sisters with Transistors", a documentary by Lisa Rovner, is well worth a look, and is part of the movement to rediscover and recognize the pioneers of electronic music. Better late than never!

There are plenty of names. Clara Rockmore, an immense theremin virtuoso, began her career in the 1930s. Daphne Oram was a British pioneer of musique concrète. The audacious Bebe Barron was responsible for experimenting with magnetic tape... But there are also Pauline Oliveros, Delia Derbyshire, Eliane Radigue, Suzanne Ciani, Laurie Spiegel, Maryanne Amacher, Wendy Carlos... These are names and charismatic personalities, most of them little-known to the public, to whom the documentary "Sisters with Transistors" at last turns the spotlight.

Lisa Rovner's film is a resolutely feminist commitment, a documentary that does justice to the pioneers of electronic music and the sonic horizons they have opened up since the 1930s, building bridges between pop culture and experimental music, which is by its very nature more confidential. This vibrant tale is told by a choice narrator who knows what she's talking about: American Laurie Anderson, one of the great figures of musical experimentation.

The story is illustrated by beautiful archives, in black & white and color, which take us to the heart of the studio-laboratories, in a tangle of multicolored cables, tape scraps, delightfully vintage computers, oscillators and giant synthesizers. In parallel, the website sisterswithtransistors.com details the history of the project and the filming, offers a biography of each of the musicians, lets you watch the trailer and, above all, allows you to rent this independent film by streaming for 48 hours. Not to be missed!

Suzanne Gervais