sQuare, DVD, 2008
This is a documentary film made with passion about passionate musicians. Amy Grill, director, and her husband David Day, a techno enthusiast working at a Cambridge (U.S.)-based music distributor decided to fund this movie about their shared love for techno, shot over the course of a few years. She narrates the film, and both of them appear as the main characters of the movie. But their passion just assumes similar forms through the techno and house protagonists, and that works as the thin red line through the whole film. They are mostly from Europe and include the Modeselektor couple, Robert Henke aka Monolake, the Wighnomy Brothers, several members of the Kompakt family and Ellen Allien. The combination of the Grill-Day on one side of the Atlantic and these famous European performers does a good job revealing the differences and similarities in the scene in the two continents. Indeed, where the movie clearly succeeds is in showing how all these people live their essential relationship with music. It is evident in so many aspects of their lives, especially in private situations, or behind the scenes, or with their own family. And this is paired with their “public” role as DJs and musicians. So the theme of being “lost in music” is sometimes clearly perceivable: each of them is so involved that there’s no distinction between their daily life and their work. And this commitment and dedication is reflects the uniqueness of the scene, now as it has often been in the past.