“Sisters with Transistors” goes where no music documentary has gone before – into the uncharted history of female electronic music pioneers. But the 2020 film debuted at the height of the pandemic and never really received a proper release to the public.
“It didn’t screen outside of film festivals, which were mostly online at that time,” says Jeff Roll, the founder and co-curator of a new film series, CinemaNiche, which will debut March 8 at Studio Two Three with a showing of “Sisters With Transistors.” Roll says that it was the worst kind of timing for director Lisa Rovner, a French-American documentarian and music video director based in London. “This was her first feature film and a real achievement and it’s a shame that it got lost.”
Roll and his collaborators at CinemaNiche hope to bring Richmond movies just like this: Edgy, provocative and little-seen documentaries about alternative music topics and subjects. “It’s pretty much an excuse to bring cool stuff to town,” he laughs.
Narrated by Laurie Anderson – who else? – “Sisters With Transistors” explores the lives and careers of a varied group of women electronic musicians. Critics at The New York Times, Esquire, and The Wall Street Journal praised the doc for its depth and insight in showcasing the work of, among others, theremin specialist Clara Rockmore, the BBC Radiophonic Workshop’s Daphne Oram and Delia Derbyshire, and “Switched on Bach” creator (and Stanley Kubrick collaborator) Wendy, formerly Walter, Carlos. “Rovner’s film is about the music these women made as a reflection of the time and space they inhabited,” noted the Los Angeles Times. “But it’s also about the way they forged ahead without role models or representations of female composers of any kind.”
“CinemaNiche is basically about showing things we want to see ourselves,” says DJ and musician P.J. Sykes, one of the film collective’s co-curators, along with Roll and Shane Brown. The latter previously helped to coordinate The Bijou, a stab at a revival cinema space downtown. “We hope to screen stuff that people might have missed, stuff that’s not easy to find,” says Sykes. “You may find it on streaming, maybe not, but you probably didn’t know about it.”
The film collective has its roots in a screening of “Where Does A Body End?”, a documentary about the cult band Swans that the team presented at Black Iris Gallery in 2019. As audience members arrived and got settled, they were treated to an opening film, “The Colloquial Orchestra Live at Banditos,” which captured a performance from Sykes’ all-star Richmond avant-garde ensemble. “There will probably be similar things at CinemaNiche, where we connect Richmond music to some of these topics being explored in the feature,” he says.
It’s no coincidence that “Sisters” will screen on International Women’s Day, March 8. “‘Sisters’ is perfect to commemorate the date,” says Roll. “These women were true pioneers. I love a good underdog tale, and you can beat the story of Delia Derbyshire, who created the ‘Dr. Who’ theme and other iconic music and never got the recognition she deserved, but is being hailed today as the innovator she was.”
Proceeds from ticket sales will go to the Richmond Reproductive Freedom Project, says Kate Fowler, the Director of Development and Community Partnerships at Studio Two Three. “At first we thought about Planned Parenthood but we wanted to focus on a local organization doing good work.”
“It’s amazing what Jeff, PJ and Shane are doing,” she says of CinemaNiche. “They are putting their heart and money and efforts into bringing new documentaries, and specifically new films about the music industry, to Richmond. They’ve been hard at work to make this an awesome black box theatre. I’m excited to see where they take it.”
CinemaNiche has been a long time coming. Three years ago, when the three-story Studio Two Three space, a former schoolhouse, was occupied by Dogtown Dance Theatre, Roll noticed that the projection system was ill-equipped for the second story auditorium. The former James River Film Society vice president, who has a background in theater projection, made Dogtown’s then-manager, Jess Burgess, a deal. “I proposed that I would donate an upgraded projection system that would fit the space better and, in return, I’d get to host film programs there free of charge. And she agreed.”
Finding the right digital projector on a budget was tough, says Sykes, who came aboard to help. “It’s a story in and of itself.” The team finally found a refurbished model, but it was massive in size. “It was so huge that we had to find a place big enough to test it, and that was the Byrd Theatre,” Roll says, adding that Brown, longtime projectionist at the Byrd, ran the test.
Soon after installing the beast, and before programming could begin, the team got bad news. Dogtown was having financial trouble in the wake of the pandemic, and was going to have to vacate the space. “It was a real kick in the chest for me,” Roll says. “I had put in a lot of time finding and installing this system but I didn’t know it was a sinking ship. For a couple of months, I thought they were going to demolish the building and build condos.” “The projector probably would have been sold,” adds Sykes.
Kate Fowler reached out. She and Ashley Hawkins, representing Studio Two Three, then housed in Scott’s Addition, were in the process of purchasing and relocating to the 16,000-square-foot building. “The project was saved by them buying the building,” says Roll, who has since installed an updated audio system in the auditorium to go along with the projector.
The studio is shaping up to be one of Richmond’s documentary film headquarters. The “Sisters” screening is only one of a number of docs scheduled for the renovated 150-seat space. The New Habit Cinema group has been presenting twice weekly screenings of alternative documentaries from the ’80s to the present day, including a recent three-film series on life in Palestine. The theater will show the film, “Inhabitants,” on March 5. Co-sponsored by the James River Park System, the documentary focuses on invasive species dangers in the James. The studio will also host the traveling Wild and Scenic Film Festival, a collection of new environmental and nature movies, on March 7.
Two Three will also be the venue for two screenings during the 30th anniversary of the James River Film Festival, including the April 11 return of Roll’s James River Filmmakers Forum, which presents new work from Richmond filmmakers, and the Silent Music Revival, which weds silent films to a contemporary live soundtrack. As always, defiantly old-school curator Jameson Price plans to eschew the digital age and screen the to-be-announced silent on an old-fashioned film projector. The revival will close out the first weekend of the JRFF on April 14.
Kate Fowler is an award-winning documentary filmmaker herself, and plans to spearhead a monthly documentary workshop at the co-op, free and open to the public. “We’re accepting ideas from the public on what else to screen here,” she says. “At our old location, we started the Doc’s Addition Screening Series right before COVID hit and I hope to bring that back in the next year.” She laughs, almost giddy. “Yeah, we’ve got big plans for this screening room.”
“Sisters with Transistors” will show at Studio Two-Three on March 8 at 7:30 p.m. Cost is $10. Proceeds benefit the Richmond Reproductive Freedom Project. For more information on this and other Studio Two-Three screenings, including the Wild and Scenic Film Festival on April 7, go to studiotwothree.org.
