XLR8R | 32.53 NEWS | ISSUE #32 | 1998

BY LINDSAY BECKER

MODULATIONS | DOCUMENTING SCIENTIST OF SOUND

It's about time some one came out with a movie documenting the international electronic dance music world that is accurate and entertaining for both scenesters and outsiders. Caipirinha Production's, Modulations is a fast-paced, funny and candid ride through the history and present of electronic music. Director Iara Lee illustrates electronic music in a way no other documentary has been able to do, mixing her images and interviews as a DJ would mix their dub plates, Lee tracks the origins of dance music and guides us through a complex timeline using on-screen interviews with the originators of the sounds. When we interviewed Iara Lee, who shot hundreds of hours of film in the making of the movie, we found out that she "sometimes feels making a movie is a little bit like running an army." Here's what the commanding officer had to say....


Coming from an outsider's perspective, what were you hoping to find and prove with your film?

If you are too much a part of the scene, you may lose perspective. I came in with no prejudices or pre-conceived ideas. If I could learn and be amused, the audience would feel that way too. Obviously I did surround myself with experts. Peter Shapiro, our film writer, was the brain of the film, he is an incredible writer and also a walking encyclopedia. I made this film because I feel music has always defined culture at large and vice versa, therefore a film on electronic music was, for me, a good way of studying youth culture and culture at large, i.e. "how is electronic music a catalyst in the process of changing trends, philosophies, and ways of life?" When I started the research, I asked myself, "Is this music disposable and therefore the culture that surrounds it disposable, or does it have more cultural relevance than we could predict?".

What audience did you have in mind when making the film?

This is a film for everyone. It is meant to entertain the converted and educate and perhaps induce the nay-sayers to rethink their ideas on electronic music. What is interesting about this music is the concept that it started with early electronic experimentalists like the futurist Russolo or even John Cage who stated, "What is music?" If any noise or dust of sound can be considered music, then we can all do it. We are facing this reality now, we are using technology to twist preconceived ideas of music making. We are using technology to be more creative. We have come very far, it is a very exciting time.

Did you find it hard to get the musicians to explain to you in words what they generally use music to explain?

Absolutely, most of these artists spend their entire day in front of their computers, fiddling with knobs, wires, equipment. They are more like scientists of sounds than pop stars. Musicians nowadays are pretty much conceptual artists and sometimes introspective ones.

Which were you more concerned with: the diversity (musical genre, race, sex) or the content of you film? There are more men making electronic music than women. Why do you think that is?

Technology related activities are still very much a boys club, but I tend to think it is changing rapidly. We, the girls, are becoming nerdettes, taking over the gear to create too. When making this film I wasn't trying to be politically correct so that if I had a black DJ, I had to have a Japanese DJ, and then a white producer, and then a female artist. The music and what the artists had to contribute to the narrative of the film was more important than their gender or race.

Give us a filming anecdote.

For some reason every time I go to Japan to film, there is always a typhoon. When we got to mount Fuji, I basically thought the Rainbow 2000 event was going to be canceled. This is another proof that the whole thing is about the music. The stage had to be wrapped up with plastic to avoid the equipment from getting soaked but the kids did not stop dancing. It was a great feeling to witness that. The event was big, but my crew did not have a crane for a high angle vantage point, so my director of photography came up with the idea of throwing the Bolex up in the air to catch the high angle shot. It looked incredibly surreal. I encourage the audience to look for that shot.