MILTON BRADLEY - Paris / Berlin : 20 years of Underground Techno

Note of Intent
I started to direct my documentary, Paris/Berlin: 20 Years of Underground Techno, in early 2010, a
few years after discovering techno for the first time. The idea came to my mind after watching
some films on that subject: Universal Techno, Global Techno, etc., and realizing that there hadn’t
been any good movies in the last few years, whereas the techno scene has changed a lot since
the early 90’s.
This documentary tells about the evolution of the underground techno scene since its beginning in
Europe in the early 90’s, focusing especially on Paris and Berlin.
Nowadays, the word ‘techno’ is used everywhere: radio, commercials, mainstream newspapers, and not
many people really know what it means anymore. A bunch of well-exposed people represent
the mainstream electronic music around the world, but the underground techno world stays
relatively closed to the non-belongers.
I chose to focus on the people that, for me, today still represent the spirit of techno, and know how to
keep that state of mind where music always come before the self-gratification of the artist,
where money is less important than keeping its integrity.
Choosing Paris as a subject in a documentary about techno can surprise some: lots of people tend to
think that the city isn’t much for alternative things, because of the prohibitive prices, the narrowminded
Parisian spirit, and the lack of political flexibility. However, an underground scene
existed, and still does today, in a small scale, thanks to a bunch of collectives.
Berlin, in the other hand, is, since the fall of the Wall in 1989, a most favorable environment for the
development of techno: huge spaces, low-cost living, and permissive government. This is why
most of the ‘techno people’ settled there, and why the mass clubbing tourism also developed
since around 2000, thanks to low-cost airlines.
The documentary shows how techno grew up over the years, eventually becoming a mass
phenomenon, being taken over by the major labels, and how, aside from that, an underground
scene had been able to recreate itself, by staying away from any commercial attraction.
About twenty people are featured in the movie: artists, djs, producers, record label people,
journalists, etc. They all have different profiles, but all contributed in one way or another to the
techno scene.
PARIS/BERLIN : 20 YEARS OF UNDERGROUND TECHNO • 4