Rolling Programme

A celebration of the women who turned machines into music.

Before synthesizers became pop stars and electronic music filled dancefloors, a group of visionary women were already experimenting with machines, electricity, tape, oscillators and sound — pushing music into places it had never been before.

Lisa Rovner’s electrifying documentary Sisters with Transistors uncovers the remarkable, and often overlooked, history of the women who helped invent electronic music.

From Delia Derbyshire, whose groundbreaking work helped create the iconic Doctor Who theme, to Daphne Oram, Suzanne Ciani, Pauline Oliveros, Laurie Spiegel, Bebe Barron, Clara Rockmore and others, the film traces a generation of composers and experimentalists who embraced new technologies as tools of freedom and transformation.

Narrated by electronic music legend Laurie Anderson, Sisters with Transistors is a celebration of women who refused to accept the boundaries of what music was supposed to be — creating strange, beautiful and revolutionary sounds in a world that wasn’t always ready to hear them.

The film asks a bigger question, too: why are so many of the women who helped shape modern music still missing from its history?

Following the screening, we’ll be joined by a panel of women working across electronic music, composition and production for a conversation about the pioneers who came before them, the women shaping electronic music today, and what has, and hasn’t, changed for women working with sound and technology.

This film is part of Now Press Play. The 2026 NPP programme celebrates women in music on screen. 

Now Press Play 2026 is  supported by Film Hub NI, part of the BFI’s Film Audience Network, awarding funding from the National Lottery