"We've been missing a voice... And we don't even know what that is." LevelFilm in Canada has released an official trailer for the indie documentary titled Underplayed, which first premiered at the Toronto Film Festival last year. Filmed over the summer festival season, Underplayed presents a portrait of the current status of the gender, ethnic, and sexuality equality issues in dance music. The doc film profiles a number of different female Edm DJs and musicians, examining how underrepresented and underplayed they are in the Edm (Electronic Dance Music) community. It's an attempt to right the wrongs and highlight great talent shaking things up. The film features Nervo, Rezz, Alison Wonderland, Tygapaw, TOKiMONSTA, with an original score composed by Kate Simko. It's available on VOD now for anyone to give this a look if they're interested in watching. Alas, as much as I love the Edm scene, I really did not...
- 3/17/2021
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
It’s no secret that nearly every genre of music outside of pop itself suffers from a moderate or severe gender imbalance problem, but the spotlight rarely falls on how women fare in electronic dance music. So students of sexism in the arts may take a ready interest in “Underplayed,” a handsomely photographed documentary from Amazon Prime that argues persuasively for women getting more seats at the table — or standup spots behind the turntable — even if it’s better at offering up underdog tales of individual female DJs who’ve triumphed than it is at getting at root causes of why they might’ve been held down.
In lieu of narration, director Stacey Lee peppers “Underplayed” with a lot of flash cards with deeply discouraging statistics about how many women are making it in this corner of pop culture. In 2019, the 15 highest paid DJs made $261 million, and they were all dudes,...
In lieu of narration, director Stacey Lee peppers “Underplayed” with a lot of flash cards with deeply discouraging statistics about how many women are making it in this corner of pop culture. In 2019, the 15 highest paid DJs made $261 million, and they were all dudes,...
- 3/9/2021
- by Chris Willman
- Variety Film + TV
Like every industry built under the watchful eye of a global patriarchy, the Edm scene is grossly tilted in favor of its male artists. And like many of those same industries, this fact exists despite the presence of women pioneers at the inception of electronic sound as a medium. For every Robert Moog that acknowledged their genius (he enlisted Clara Rockmore’s expertise to better the advancement of his synthesizer), there were unfortunately countless others like Don Buchla, who agreed to sponsor a class for recent grads like Suzanne Ciani before declaring it closed to women—of which she was to be the only one. So gatekeeping manifests at the level of education, the level of access, and ultimately the level of success.
The numbers don’t lie. Less than three percent of the field’s production and technical roles are women. Less than three-tenths of a percent are women of color.
The numbers don’t lie. Less than three percent of the field’s production and technical roles are women. Less than three-tenths of a percent are women of color.
- 9/20/2020
- by Jared Mobarak
- The Film Stage
In this “is the cinema half-empty or half-full?” world, Canadian producers are focusing on the perks of a leaner, hybrid Toronto fest, rather than empty seats.
“There is so much happening in the world on social and political levels, I am curious how that influences the consciousness of the marketplace,” says Toronto vet Charles Officer, director and co-producer of gang drama “Akilla’s Escape,” starring poet-actor Saul Williams.
“Screening in a smaller pool of titles allows for more visibility,” says Officer. “It’s important the cast of talented Black actors receive exposure at a festival like Toronto, and it’s rare that Black filmmakers in Canada make features — we can’t afford to be passive about opportunities to participate.” XYZ Films is selling the film.
WaZabi Films’ “Beans,” Tracey Deer’s coming-of-ager set during the 1990 standoff between Mohawk communities and government forces in Oka, Quebec, is “relevant to the times we are living in,...
“There is so much happening in the world on social and political levels, I am curious how that influences the consciousness of the marketplace,” says Toronto vet Charles Officer, director and co-producer of gang drama “Akilla’s Escape,” starring poet-actor Saul Williams.
“Screening in a smaller pool of titles allows for more visibility,” says Officer. “It’s important the cast of talented Black actors receive exposure at a festival like Toronto, and it’s rare that Black filmmakers in Canada make features — we can’t afford to be passive about opportunities to participate.” XYZ Films is selling the film.
WaZabi Films’ “Beans,” Tracey Deer’s coming-of-ager set during the 1990 standoff between Mohawk communities and government forces in Oka, Quebec, is “relevant to the times we are living in,...
- 9/9/2020
- by Jennie Punter
- Variety Film + TV
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