The R&B Feeling

Think of early electronic music and you’ll likely see men pushing buttons, knobs, and boundaries. While electronic music is often perceived as a boys' club, the truth is that from the very beginning women have been integral in inventing the devices, techniques and tropes that would define the shape of sound for years to come.

Hull, England, 1970. In a run-down commune in a tough port city, a group of social misfits - mostly working class, mostly self-educated - adopted new identities and began making simple street theater under the name COUM Transmissions. Their playful performances gradually gave way to work that dealt openly with sex, pornography, and violence. COUM lived on the edges of society, surviving on meager resources, finding fellowship with others marginalized by the mainstream. At the core of the group were two artists, Genesis P-Orridge and Cosey Fanni Tutti. As their work evolved, Cosey embarked on a career modeling for pornographic magazines, which she claimed for herself as a conceptual artwork, using it to forge a specific position in relationship to 1970s feminism. In performances, Genesis pushed himself to extremes, testing the limits of the human body.

When old feelings return, a reunion of friends at a Swedish summerhouse is thrown into chaos, hurt and conflict.

Drowned City is a documentary film about the people who devote themselves to pirate radio in London. The film takes a journey with today's youth who spend their days and nights transmitting from tower blocks and warehouses; with nostalgic, experienced ex-pirates who have lost their battles with Ofcom and paid the price; and with mainstream stars who owe their fame and fortune today to their early start in pirate radio. Through unprecedented access to the secret lives of pirates, we are offered the opportunity to ask why these individuals take such enormous risks for illegal broadcasting. The stories told by key characters provide insight into the poignant affect pirate radio has had on their lives.