Looking for a unique lesson for Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day? You probably don’t know much about the role women have played in the electronic music industry. The new (Canadian-made!) documentary Underplayed wants to change that, and it turns out this music is the perfect allegory between what women have accomplished and how overdue their recognition truly is.
Underplayed was the ultimate girl power movie of last year’s Toronto International Film Festival. I first got to see it in September 2020 at its premiere and chose it as one my favourites from the whole event, but now its wide release streaming on Crave has been timed with IWD earlier this week.
Director Stacey Lee's exploration of underrepresentation of women in digital and electronic music production is well-researched with loads of interviews from a wide array of both talented and knowledgable women, including musicians and historians alike. It was a team of women, for instance, who pioneered digital sound almost 100 years ago!
It won't surprise you what many barriers are, but this is such a well-composed argument against those barriers it should be enough to invoke change. (There’s a reason that, as one of the interviewees says, "even as a DJ, nightclubs aren't always safe for women.”)
The most surprising part is how in-depth the history of women pioneering music production (and later DJing) is. History informs the present, and there's a great collection of statistics, information and heart-pounding performances that both educate and entertain.
Its worst quality are montages of self-promotions for the artists and the film itself. We don’t need any of it because the quality of its material speaks for itself. These scenes thankfully don't last long and is a shortcoming that's easy to overlook.
Don’t, however, confuse these self-promotions for scenes featuring the performances from the likes of Alison Wonderland, REZZ and Sherelle. Having stirring and exciting music is essential in any movie that’s about music in some way, and Underplayed does not disappoint. I don’t even like electronic music and I still found myself nodding my head in time with the music and getting into it.
One of the most powerful scenes shows a sequence of festival posters from notable music events. First the posters show the names of everyone, and then the names of all the male performers fade away, leaving only the women.
It’s a terrific visual that makes the disparity immediately clear. Looking at this collection of nauseatingly empty posters is an effective way to showing the massive industrial disparity the Lee wants us (especially us men) to acknowledge not just in electronic music but in all forms of business.
The film is a grander statement on what the source and evils of sexism both in and beyond the music industry really are and what it will cost us. The point hits you hard - almost as hard as the beat drop that pulses again and again and again.
Maybe that’s the clever parallel between institutional sexism and electronic music: It’s the same beat on repeat until groundbreakers, like the artists we see in Underplayed, come along to change the way we listen.
Underplayed
8 out of 10
PG, 1hr 28mins. Music Documentary.
Co-written and Directed by Stacey Lee.
Starring Alison Wonderland, REZZ and Sherelle.
