Open Now:
Become a Member
Your Cart
Sisters with Transistors
Directed by Lisa Rovner
$12 / $8 Speed members
“An important tribute to these women and their influence, it’s also a cinematic experience that melds the visuals to the abstract, hallucinatory sounds of their compositions.” Katie Walsh, Los Angeles Times
Sisters with Transistors is an essential primer for those interested in discovering this vital, oft-overlooked history of women in electronic music, while also offering plenty of pleasures for crate-digging experimental music obsessives.
Although the democratizing potential of technology has often been overstated, the advent of electronic music in the 20th century was a radical break from all musical traditions that came before it. This new mode allowed artists to create compositions that were completely divorced from the Western canon, fantasias that were built out of tones that could only be realized through electrical impulses, intricate tape loops, punch cards, or modified samples plucked from the natural world.
As Lisa Rovner’s documentary demonstrates, these women—many of whom were classically trained musicians, brilliant mathematicians, or a combination of both—relished the freedom of electronic music, even as they faced discrimination due to their gender and chosen medium. Through their inventiveness and rebellion, these trailblazers’ music went on to influence musicians working in a variety of genres and proved the worthiness of going electric.
Narrated by legendary multimedia artist Laurie Anderson, Lisa Rovner’s superb Sisters with Transistors showcases the music of and rare interviews with female electronic pioneers Clara Rockmore, Delia Derbyshire, Daphne Oram, Éliane Radigue, Maryanne Amacher, Bebe Barron, Suzanne Ciani, Pauline Oliveros, Laurie Spiegel, and Wendy Carlos. Contemporary musicians, such as Holly Herndon and Kim Gordon, also offer insights into their forebears’ indelible music and their personal significance. 2020, U.K., DCP, 84 minutes. Recommended for 12+
Co-presented with Girls Rock Louisville with a portion of ticket sales supporting their mission.
CINEMA+ There will be a panel featuring guests from Girls Rock Louisville following the June 26 screening.
Joyce Barbor: Board Secretary, Communications Committee Chair, Girls Rock Louisville
Joyce Barbour (She/They) is a transfeminine multimedia artist focusing primarily on sound and installation. Conceptually, Barbour’s work often explores the therapeutic possibilities of art and the idea of creativity as a communal effort. Collaboration is a strong part of her creative practice. She records and performs music under the name Psychic Skin. Barbour currently sits on the Girls Rock Louisville board as Board Secretary.Joyce found the experience perfectly reflected the type of world they’d love to live in— one that ensures a seat at the table for women, femme, trans, and non-binary people of all backgrounds.”
Heather Fox: Board Director, Fundraising Committee Co-Chair of Girls Rock Louisville, Archivist at University of Louisville, Co-founder of Louisville Underground Music Archive, Librarian
Heather Fox has volunteered for Girls Rock Louisville since her band played at the Outskirts Festival in 2014. She has been a guitar instructor and band coach and loves everything about GRL. Heather has participated in the local music scene since she started playing rhythm guitar in Juanita, a feminist garage rock band that has been together since 1992. Heather is a passionate about preserving the Louisville’s local music history, especially the women and femme’s who made big waves in Louisville’s punk scene in the 1990’s.
Jerika Jones
Jerika Jones is current Executive Director of Girls Rock Louisville. She has earned her Masters in Arts in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies with a concentration in musicology and music performance in 2020. She is particularly interested in the relationship between music, post-colonial studies, and transnational feminist political rhetoric that is embedded within the cultural memory of music and its performance throughout the Global South. Jerika has also earned her Bachelors in Arts in Philosophy with a social science concentration and her Bachelors in Arts in Psychology in 2016.