We Call It Techno!

What happened after Techno got exported from Detroit and Chicago? This is what "We Call It Techno" tries to portray. It focuses on the development from 1988 to 1993 in Germany, predominantly in Berlin, Cologne and Munich.

There is no point in summarizing the content as it follows quite classic paradigms of documentary except for one thing: structure. It's a very loose construct of statements that hardly ever develops a common thread. It mainly tries to reflect the feelings, imaginations and motivations which organizers as well as party-goers enjoyed during this time. Soon it becomes clear that the makers not only want to educate but also spread some nostalgia - which commonly ends in "this is the greatest and most unique thing that ever happened". But as long as the viewer has his/her filters turned on one can extract some very interesting information out of it.

It is obviously not a professional documentary film - video, audio, storytelling and the constantly repeating cycle of comments, some footage and Techno tracks from that era underline this. It doesn't have any ups or downs nor a conclusion - it just moves on. But it is very ambitious and you cannot deny that the makers have a passion for what they try to describe. Unfortunately I can recommend this film only to fans of the genre, not because of the content but rather because of the chaotic structure and too many comments that are just not relevant and fill the piece up to 100min. The narrator is German (although he speaks in English), and that's also what he sounds like - you can't help but laugh.

I suppose in a couple of years a documentary will come along that will put this very interesting story into shape. But "We Call It Techno!" isn't that film I'm afraid.