Sisters with Transistors _ Documentary Film

Sisters with Transistors tells the extraordinary story of the pioneers of electronic music: visionary women who embraced machines and new technologies to radically transform the way music is created, produced and heard.

Directed by Lisa Rovner in her feature film debut, this 2020 American documentary revisits the origins of electronic music through the experiences and experiments of the composers who redefined its boundaries. Drawing on archival footage, recordings and testimonies, the film takes us into their studios and laboratories and explores the tools with which they opened up new sonic paths that remain relevant today.

Clara Rockmore, Daphne Oram, Bebe Barron, Delia Derbyshire, Maryanne Amacher, Pauline Oliveros, Wendy Carlos, Eliane Radigue, Suzanne Ciani and Laurie Spiegel are among the central figures in this story. Synthesizers, magnetic tapes, oscillators and other technologies became experimental instruments through which they expanded the possibilities of music.

From the earliest electronic experiments to contemporary digital production, many of the tools and listening practices we take for granted today have their roots in their research. Sisters with Transistors thus reclaims a history of electronic music that has often been overlooked, bringing to the forefront the women who played a decisive role in shaping it.