DJ Spooky Movies
- 2009
This concert program from DJ Spooky and the Matthew Shipp Trio captures the performance with innovative techniques, employing four hand-held cameras on stage to record the action from every angle. ~ Cammila Albertson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- DJ Spooky, Matthew Shipp, (more)
- 2006
Sarah Gerhardt made surfing history when, in 1998, she became the first female wave rider to ever brave the Maverick's wave in Northern California. Maverick's is an enormous wave known to strike fear in the hearts of even the most hardened surfers - not only for its intimidating size but also for the fact that it breaks into the shivering, shark-infested waters off Half Moon Bay. Before Gerhardt took on Maverick's she was living in poverty and despair, yet despite the fact that she achieved a certain level of inner-peace in accomplishing her dream, her feat went largely unnoticed in the male-dominated world of surfing. In this documentary, viewers are invited to follow along with Gerhardt as she sets out on the most rewarding adventure of her life. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
Born in 1934, Robert Moog grew up in New York City, where he developed a passion for playing the piano around the same time he started tinkering with electronic equipment, an interest he picked up from his father. In 1949, Moog had learned how to build and play theremins, one of the world's first electronic musical instruments, and he began selling mail-order theremin kits out of his apartment in the early '60s. Moog's obsession with using electronics to create music led him to invent and market the Moog synthesizer in 1964; while hardly the first electronic keyboard, its broad range of strange but inviting sounds (as well as its unique simulations of "real" instruments) pushed the keyboard-based synthesizer into the forefront of electronic music-making. The award-winning album Switched on Bach by Walter Carlos (later Wendy Carlos) was performed entirely on the Moog, and soon everyone from the Beatles to Buck Owens began exploring the possibilities of the synthesizer. Moog is a documentary that chronicles Robert Moog's life and times, as well as his philosophies about electronics and music, and features testimonials from some of the many musicians who have used his instruments, including Keith Emerson, Rick Wakeman, Money Mark, and DJ Spooky. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
This history and culture of hip-hop, as rapping, street dancing, and graffiti art grew from a local phenomenon in the South Bronx to an art form embraced around the world, are examined in this documentary from filmmaker Paul Kell. Focusing on the more intelligent and "conscious" side of hip-hop rather than the more commercial and exploitive direction of many top-selling artists, Five Sides of a Coin traces hip-hop back to its origins in the hard-hitting musical poetry of Gil Scott-Heron and the Last Poets and the block-party musical innovations of Kool DJ Herc and Afrika Bambaataa, while featuring the thoughts of a number of leading artists and offering a look at the hip-hop in Japan, Europe, and the United Kingdom. Five Sides of a Coin includes interviews with KRS-One, Biz Markie, Q-Bert, Jeru, Michael Franti, DJ Spooky, and more. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- DJ Spooky, Michael Franti, (more)
Joey Curtis' highly stylized Streets of Legend tells the story of a love triangle set in the world of street racing. Derek (Robert Beaumont) is a Caucasian young man who is an up-and-coming street racer with the nickname Quattro. His likeability wins over a young woman named Noza (Brihanna Hernandez), whose devotion to her no-good boyfriend, Chato (Victor Larios), wavers after Chato violates his parole and must go back into prison. The project was shot on digital video. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brihanna Hernandez, Victor Larios, (more)
- 1999
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Rave culture began in the early 1980s as a nexus point where underground dance grooves and alternative electronic music met. It has since grown into a worldwide movement that has had a major impact on contemporary music, emerging from the underground into mainstream acceptance, with Prodigy and The Chemical Brothers scoring high on the charts in the United States, and artists like Madonna, Eric Clapton and U2 all dipping their toes into the style. Better Living Through Circuitry explores the myriad avenues of rave culture and its many related musical styles -- including trip hop, acid house, jungle/drum & bass, industrial and electronica -- and features interviews with innovators and leading artists in the field, including Wolfgang Flür of Kraftwerk, Genesis P-Orridge of Psychic TV, Moby, Roni Size, DJ Spooky, Frankie Bones and the Crystal Method. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Crystal Method, Roni Size, (more)
Circuit is a series of DVDs that brings the viewer closer to the music and the musicians. This edition of Circuit features interviews, live performances, and candid footage of a broad spectrum of artists including Rufus Wainwright, Sebadoh, The Roots, Wilco, and a preview of the soundtrack for the comedy SLC Punk. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- 1998
- NR
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Documentarian Iara Lee, a U.S.-based, Brazilian-born filmmaker, skated through virtual reality, cyber-stimuli, and recreational technologies in her fast-paced Synthetic Pleasures (1995), notable for the memorable "surf's up" sequence inside a Japanese indoor beach with rolling waves. Where Synthetic Pleasures attempted to explore all aspects of the digital domain, Modulations focuses just on modern music-rave parties, techno dance music, and the history of electronic music (John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Robert Moog), moving on to '70s innovators (Kraftwerk, Giorgio Moroder), hip-hop pioneers, and more recent club-scene creators (Prodigy, Moby, Money Mark, Future Sound of London, The Invisibl Skratch Piklz), capturing diverse dance-track styles (house, trip-hop, acidhouse, ambient). The 35mm film brings together archival material, video clips, concert footage, and numerous interviews with musicians. Shown at 1998 film festivals (Sundance, Berlin). ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
