Movies Similar to Future Sounds of Mzansi

A Life in Waves(2017)

Explores the life and innovations of composer and electronic music pioneer Suzanne Ciani.

Locked Off(2016)

Rave Culture is one of Britain’s great cultural exports, but after its first wave in the late eighties and early nineties, it was soon forced into the underground by stringent new laws and superclubs. But forward 25 years into in the midst of a nationwide purge on the nation’s nightlife, where nearly half of all British clubs have shut down in the last decade, and a new kind of scene has emerged. Clive Martin investigates this 21st century version of Rave, where young people break into disused spaces with the help of bolt-cutters and complicated squatting laws, to suck on balloons and go hard into the early morning. But with the police using increasingly extreme tactics to clamp down on these parties, and more than one fatality causing nationwide media panic, can the scene survive?

Voyages au centre de la Terre : Dans les pas de Jules Verne(2023)

Never Stop: A Music That Resists(2017)

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.

Lindsey Stirling: Brave Enough(2017)

Beginning on the eve of her thirtieth birthday, “Brave Enough,” documents violinist Lindsey Stirling over the past year as she comes to terms with the most challenging & traumatic events of her life. Through her art, she seeks to share a message of hope and courage and yet she must ask herself the question, “Am I Brave Enough?” Capturing her personal obstacles and breakthrough moments during the “Brave Enough,” tour, the film presents an intimate look at this one-of- a-kind artist and her spectacular live performances inspired by real-life heartbreak, joy, and love.

My Beloved Country(1991)

A provocative look from within at Afrikaner extremists who, in 1991, clung to the belief that they were the chosen ‘super race’ of Africa. With the demise of white rule, many of these Boers lived in fear. Some had banded into paramilitary groups, such as Eugene Terre’Blanche’s Afrikaner Resistance Movement, which claimed wide support within the South African army and police. They were preparing for an armed showdown with the new government.

Keyboard Fantasies(2021)

As a sci-fi obsessed woman living in near isolation, Beverly Glenn-Copeland wrote and self-released Keyboard Fantasies in Huntsville, Ontario back in 1986. Recorded in an Atari-powered home-studio, the cassette featured seven tracks of a curious folk-electronica hybrid, a sound realized far before its time. Three decades on, the musician – now Glenn Copeland – began to receive emails from people across the world, thanking him for the music they’d recently discovered.

COOCUYO(2017)

COOCUYO. To quote a Cuban comedian: “where does the Cocuyo hide its battery?”, just thanks to its peculiarity, Desiderio uses this cockroach as a perfect metaphor to describe his protagonists: with their green lights during the night and virtually impossible to find during the day. In his movie, he tries to find the battery of the Cocuyo living and looking for the “day-time” part, creating a path made by portraits and with an anti-narrative style. These scenes are far away from the Electronic music, or partly at least; all in a very natural context and without a defined screenplay. http://www.coocuyo.com/

Björk: Minuscule(2002)

This documentary offers a behind-the-scenes look at Björk and her touring entourage for the 2001 Vespertine tour. It includes interviews with harpist Zeena Parkins, the Inuit choir from Greenland, electronic duo Matmos, and an ongoing conversation with Björk herself about her recordings and her tours. The documentary is interspersed with live footage of songs from the tour shot by Ragnheidur Gestsdóttir, which themselves correspond to the performances chosen for the Vespertine Live album.

Dawn of Humanity(2015)

Nova and National Geographic present exclusive access to an astounding discovery of ancient fossil human ancestors.

Revolution of Sound - Tangerine Dream(2017)

‘Tangerine Dream is science fiction!’ declares band leader Edgar Froese who died in January, 2015 aged 70. For almost fifty years he and his band ‘Tangerine Dream’ explored sound and its effect on our emotions. This film about one of Germany’s first electronic bands kicks off with the young Berlin musicians who were as inspired by the space age of the 1960s, with its rocket launchings and visions of the future, as they were by their own heartbeat, on which Froese also based compositions. Aided by the Moog and other synthesisers Froese (and various band members) revolutionised popular music. His explorations took him into the worlds of classical, new and film music. He preferred to visualise moods rather than create clearly structured songs. A blend of amateur footage, interviews with band members, relatives, friends and colleagues such as Jean-Michel Jarre that creates a comprehensive portrait of an artistic pioneer.

Clara Rockmore: The Greatest Theremin Virtuosa(1998)

Quite simply the finest theremin player who has ever lived, Clara Rockmore began her performing life as a violin prodigy at the age of 5 years old, still the youngest person ever admitted to the prestigious Imperial Conservatory of Saint Petersburg where she studied under the great Leopold Auer. Due to childhood malnutrition causing bone problems in her teen years, she was forced to give up the violin and moved to New York City in the mid 1920's where she met and became involved with Russian electronics genius Leon Theremin and helped him to refine and perfect his new instrument, giving advice from the standpoint of a musical performer to make the theremin more playable and developing her own hand techniques and exercises for playing the instrument.

Avicii - My Last Show(2024)

On Aug. 28, 2016, Tim Bergling, better known as Avicii, graced the stage of the Ushuaïa nightclub in Ibiza for what would be his final performance.

Modulo: The Analog Synth Documentary(2014)

A musical documentary and tribute to Hugh Le Caine. The story of early electronic instruments, and the nearly forgotten Canadian music pioneer who created the first synthesizers. As told through interviews with three modern-day modular synth musicians.

Amandla! A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony(2002)

The struggle to eradicate apartheid in South Africa has been chronicled over time, but no one has addressed the vital role music plays in this challenge. This documentary by Lee Hirsch recounts a fascinating and little-known part of South Africa's political history through archival footage, interviews and, of course, several mesmerizing musical performances.

Drummies(2022)

In a meditation on the meaning behind sports in a Post-Apartheid South Africa, three young girls muse on their hopes and dreams as aspiring Drum Majorettes.

Africa Light / Gray Zone(2010)

"Africa Light" - as white local citizens call Namibia. The name suggests romance, the beauty of nature and promises a life without any problems in a country where the difference between rich and poor could hardly be greater. Namibia does not give that impression of it. If you look at its surface it seems like Africa in its most innocent and civilized form. It is a country that is so inviting to dream by its spectacular landscape, stunning scenery and fascinating wildlife. It has a very strong tourism structure and the government gets a lot of money with its magical attraction. But despite its grandiose splendor it is an endless gray zone as well. It oscillates between tradition and modernity, between the cattle in the country and the slums in the city. It shuttles from colonial times, land property reform to minimum wage for everyone. It fluctuates between socialism and cold calculated market economy.

2 or 3 Things I Know About Him(2005)

What would your family reminiscences about dad sound like if he had been an early supporter of Hitler’s, a leader of the notorious SA and the Third Reich’s minister in charge of Slovakia, including its Final Solution? Executed as a war criminal in 1947, Hanns Ludin left behind a grieving widow and six young children, the youngest of whom became a filmmaker. It's a fascinating, maddening, sometimes even humorous look at what the director calls "a typical German story." (Film Forum)

Ithuteng (Never Stop Learning)(2005)

Tells the stories of four students who are turning their lives around at the Ithuteng Trust School.

Sathima's Windsong(2010)

Shot in New York, Cape Town, St Helena and the Atlantic Ocean, Sathima's Windsong, is a lyrical portrait of South African jazz singer, Sathima Bea Benjamin. In her Chelsea Hotel apartment, home for over thirty years, she patches together her journeys, from apartheid's 'pattern of brokenness', to a chance meeting and recording with Duke Ellington in Paris, to making a life in New York. The narrative of her journeys are inter-woven with her music and the musings of folks who know her work. Like her haunting song, Windsong, the film is a meditation on displacement, exile and belonging.