Morton Subotnick Documentary Debut Coming Soon

Waveshaper Media has announced that they’ve completed Subotnick: Portrait of an Electronic Music Pioneer, a new documentary about composer and electronic music pioneer Morton Subotnick.

“We could not be more proud of the film, and can’t wait to share it with all of you,” they note. “We also take great pride in the fact that Mort has given his full approval of the finished film. We are truly humbled by that!”

The world-premiere for the film is planned for early-November. Details are to come.

About the film:

Through a series of candid interviews and illuminating conversations with key figures from his past and present, Subotnick provides an overview of this fascinating composer’s rich life and uncompromising career.

Over 5 years in the making, Subotnick is a first-hand account, and an artistic portrait, of this seminal composer, whose approach to art, and outlook on life, reveal a unique thinker with a fiercely individualist streak.

The film narrative moves along two parallel lines; exploring a year in his life as he creates and shapes the multi-media chamber opera “Crowds and Power,” while simultaneously exploring his past — going back in time to his days as a child prodigy on the clarinet, his disastrous stint in the army during the Korean War, founding the San Francisco Tape Music Center, and culminating in his breakthrough recording of b, the world’s first electronic music composition specifically created for the record medium.

Featuring several live performances from around the globe, captured in glorious surround sound, and augmented with innovative liquid-light psychedelic effects, Subotnick is a multimedia experience that highlights and celebrates one of the world’s most influential living composers.

The company also shared an update on their long-awaited Electronic Voyager, a documentary about Bob Moog.

They say that they have a rough cut of the film that they are proud of and that has the approval from Bob Moog Foundation executive director, Michelle Moog-Koussa.

“We feel strongly that Electronic Voyager will be an eye-opening, heart-breaking – and heart-warming – insight into the man behind the myth,” notes Producer Jason Amm.

Waveshaper says that licensing costs are a hurdle to be addressed before they can do a final release, but that they are confident enough in their rough cut to submit the film to “several major 2023 doc/film festivals.”

17 thoughts on “Morton Subotnick Documentary Debut Coming Soon

    1. This comment by this person on the internet, that will fade into nothingness, not to be remembered, having made zero contribution to society, showing how empty some peoples lives are, with little else to be learned. hOw ExCiTiNg!!

    2. did you actually come to a synthesizer website and troll about a documentary on a famous electronic musician and synthesizer pioneer? maybe rethink how you spend your time

        1. There’s ignorance, then there’s willful ignorance.

          Caring about history isn’t ‘hero worship’. Understanding what’s come before in electronic music is required if you hope to do anything original.

          Most of what passes as ‘experimental’ electronic music today is a shadow of what Subotnick did more than 50 years ago.

        2. Right….there is hero worship and some level of acknowledgement of someone for their accomplishments.

          Then there is you, whom can’t tell the difference…..and word is “latter”, genius.

    3. Morton Subotnick is pretty much perfect for a documentary. he is not uber famous but he crossed paths with a lot of pivotal people, events and places during his life, he is well liked so other people of interest (perhaps some more of your taste) will give interviews, he has a lot of contacts and anecdotes exactly because he is a old guy, etc…

  1. I’m a sucker for documentaries like this. I hope they are able to secure a distribution that makes it easily available for folks after they do their initial run.

  2. Pleased to see this coming along! I helped kickstart or indiegogo (cant remember) this, and it seemed like it would dissapear like a few other documentaries that took my funds and then failed to materialize. So glad for this update!

  3. I find it so interesting to see someone like this see what has happened to music tech and where it has gone. He uses Abelton and vsts. He must be amazed seeing these from the early days. Now we have VR. Yet he seems open minded and young at heart and ready to embrace new stuff. Respect!

  4. I’m glad this exists, but it’s a bummer for all of us who supported the Electronic Voyager documentary so long ago. I know they’re working on it, but it’s been a long, long time. Subotnick is certainly important, but Bob is the man.

    1. Hey, director of Subotnick and Electronic Voyager here, the only thing that is stopping our other film from release right now is music and archival rights, we are still working on raising the funds we need to make it happen, it is a very significant figure, otherwise, the film has been complete for some time and is just waiting for that last bit to happen. I really appreciate your enthusiasm…nobody wants to see that film released more than I do!

  5. the proudest moment i’ve had was playing my music for an event at calarts and a professor from UCLA asked if i was playing something new by Subotnick.

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