This comprehensive documentary chronicles the underground rave culture in Southern California, one of its first American strongholds. With roots in a tribal past, this movement attempts to format the future of a truly global community by combining elements of electronic/percussive music, the psychedelic imagination, and mass dancing. From warehouses to mountain retreats to the deserts of the Mojave, an unseen world comes into clear focus; with kinetic camera work and candid interviews, this slice of visual anthropology probes the underbelly of a worldwide subculture with the help of some of electronic music's most acclaimed DJs, a technomusicologist, and a county sheriff. Open your mind to this moving entertainment experience and intimate portrait of a modern counter-culture that follows its own electronically induced beat.
The “Bowlingtreff” is a bowling alley situated right in the centre of Leipzig opened in July 1987. At that time the quality of life in Leipzig and the whole GDR got worse. Houses collapsed because of poor conditions, public life and amusement was on a very low level. The “Bowlingtreff” was not merely an urban entertainment centre but a revolution in those days. Built with the help of hundreds of volunteers without permission of the state authorities in Berlin the building expresses a free and international architecture known as postmodernism. It is an architecture that was never seen before in Leipzig. Marble and parquet on the floor, a glass roof and beautiful pink pillars. The atmosphere was western as time witnesses remember it.
New Order's Stephen Morris and Gillian Gilbert unpack a playlist of electro, pop and new wave classics spanning four decades. Stephen and Gillian have been married for 24 years and have been in New Order together for even longer, but they still manage to surprise one another with their musical tastes. While Stephen declares Captain Beefheart an early influence, Gillian confesses her teenage love for a disco classic. During an hour of top tunes, Stephen also reveals the moment he was mistaken for Stevie Wonder, and Gillian recalls how her Dad was a fan of punk. From Kraftwerk to Can, David Bowie to Kate Bush, Magazine to Grace Jones and many more, this stellar playlist by Stephen and Gillian is brimming with iconic performances.
Since 2013, the Casual Gabberz collective has been storming dancefloors and the stages of the biggest festivals with its gabber surge, that hardcore techno sound born in Holland in the 90s. Until a virus causes the planet to go haywire. And triggered an existential crisis within the collective.
„I began documenting their lives, if only because I hoped each film would have a happy ending.“ (Gerd Kroske)
An unnamed passer-by is forced to trace a circular route inside an abandoned tram station, facing loss and time. The broken walls act as a channel, transmitting fragmentary, blurred and analogical memories.
Dance music has spread across the world transcending religious & racial barriers connecting to the hearts and souls of millions. People have always felt the rhythm of music and have as a result evolved countless dance styles throughout the ages. Beginning in the late 80's in Melbourne's underground dance music party scene, a revolutionary freestyle dance began to grow and has now developed into the most unique and robust underground dance style since the birth of Breakdancing. The Melbourne Shuffle has no set steps but encourages individuality and imagination, incorporating dance moves from numerous styles such as miming, popping & locking, liquid and breaking.
Mark Thompson teams up with historian Dr Fionnan O’Connor to discover the fascinating story of what was once the greatest whiskey industry in the world.
The film traces over 10 years of uninhibited activism by this modern tribe, from the first underground parties to the temples of showbiz society. The Heretik have climbed all the way to the legendary Olympia concert hall in Paris. Immerse yourself in the tormented intimacy of a leading counter-culture band.
Techno celebrated its 25th birthday in 2013. It has become a culture in its own right, ranking among trendy music, and bringing together millions of people worldwide. Its DJs have become veritable stars. It is a global, worldwide culture, and its creators and fans alike share its common denominators of hedonism, a thirst for freedom, and a sense of suspended time via its musical trances. Thanks to Internet, but also thanks to emblematic festivals, the Techno movement is today undergoing exponential growth. What are the codes and the creative processes of this worldwide culture? Who are the leading players of this global movement? How does this music influence contemporary creation, and increasingly, the economy?
A documentary about the hooligans and the rivalry of two football clubs in Leipzig.
In the final days of the yuppie decade, the summer of ’89 saw a new type of youth rebellion rip through the cultural landscape, with thousands of young people dancing at illegal Acid House parties in fields and aircraft hangars around the M25. Set against the backdrop of ten years of Thatcherism, it was a benign form of revolution, dubbed the Second Summer of Love – all the ravers wanted was the freedom to party… The rave scene, along with the drug Ecstasy, broke down social barriers and even football hooligans were ‘loved up’, solving a problem the government had never managed to crack. But lurid tabloid headlines and cat-and-mouse games with the police eventually turned the dream sour, as the gangster element moved in at the end of the summer.
Party auf dem Todesstreifen - Soundtrack der Wende
Documentary on the techno music scene. A journey through the world of electronic music. This film is a compilation of different live sets and concert-parts of some electronic music artists.
From Dr Who to The Dark Side of the Moon to modern day dance music, the pioneering members of the Electronic Music Studios radically changed the sound-scape of the 20th Century. What the Future Sounded Like tells this fascinating story of British electronic music. What The Future Sounded Like mixes experimental visual and sonic techniques with animation and never-seen-since archival footage. A sonic and visual collage, this documentary colors in a lost chapter in music history, uncovering a group of composers and music engineers who harnessed technology and new ideas to re-imagine the boundaries of music and sound.
This lost classic, shot on 16mm in a wintry Berlin in 1993, explores the origins of the German trance scene. Featuring interviews with fresh-faced selectors including Laurent Garnier and MFS Records founder Mark Reeder, the documentary also feature footage from the city's iconic Love Parades in 1991 and 1993.
Free Party, en deçà du bien et du mal
As noted on back-cover: "The 27th of November 1993 the Jaarbeurs Utrecht was the location of the biggest and most spectacular house event in European history. 20.000 Ravers, 160 K Sound, 500.000 Watts of Lights, 12 DJ's, 5 Live Acts and the famous Thunderdome Octopus. Witness the unbelievable "Wall Of Sound", hypnotizing lights, lasers, video effects and of course the Thundertruck."
Featuring the pioneers of techno music Juan Atkins, Derrick May, Carl Craig, and Jeff Mills, Never Stop takes us into the fascinating universe of techno labels in Detroit. This film highlights the deep roots of the creation, more than thirty years ago, by each of the African-American pioneers of techno music, of their own record labels.
The film follows the inception of the movement, a meeting between ravers and the new age travellers during Thatcher's last days in power, and the explosive years that followed, leading up the infamous Castlemorton free festival in 1992 - the largest ever illegal rave, which provoked the drastic change of the laws of trespass with the notorious introduction of the Criminal Justice Act in 1994.