Review of Sisters with Transistors

As a male electronic composer myself, I was aware of a few of the women like Wendy Carlos, Suzanne Ciani, and Laurie Anderson. But was amazed at so many female pioneers I never heard of, and the lengths they went to achieve what they were after. And that their main objective, regardless of how talented and proficient they were of any standard instrument; was to evoke emotion and thought through amplified sound. And without causing controversy here, I find that most male synthesists and electronic composers (including myself) tend to focus on 'expressiveness' through wailing solos ala Keith Emerson and Rick Wakeman, to detailed and perfect production pieces ala Krafterk to Depeche Mode. Not to say that male expressiveness via performance or production can't generate emotions or thought. But most of the female pioneers were purely content to have the sound and/or performance by the tape loops, synthesizers to computers be the guiding principle. To have enough knowledge in setting things up and managing them, but let the machines be the driving factor to convey their compositions. Very inspirational! And the fact that these women persevered as best they could with lack of support, sexism, skepticism. Along with personal issues such as lesbianism, gender change, relationships, etc. The movie doesn't touch too much on those issues by and large, but they are mentioned.

I'd love to see more explained, demonstrated, and personal struggles endured. But in amassing so many in the confines of a movies run time, it's very impressive all that got covered. And I'm sure there's still a lot that were missed out on as well.