TIFF 2020 film review: 'Underplayed'

Think fast: name five female electronic dance music artists. The intimate and gripping documentary 'Underplayed' (screening at the 45th Toronto International Film Festival) examines how gender disparity relegated women to near invisibility in the billion-dollar EDM genre - and what that entrenched silencing means for art.

In short: In the last two years, only 7 percent of Billboard’s Top 100 DJ list were female. This documentary uses the electronic music scene to explore gender inequality. Features Alison Wonderland, TOKiMONSTA and Mark Ronson.

Inequality can be an abstract theme - an idea too easy to shrug off without empirical evidence. But seeing a promotional leaflet of all the artists performing at some EDM event ... then seeing all the men's names digitally removed from the poster starkly and inescapably illustrates the disparity. It's disturbing to watch all the male names dropped off the list - and see the scant few remaining names of women left on the list ... if there's any left at all. And when Forbes and Brown University studies confirm that women are woefully absent from an entire genre of art, it becomes undeniably clear that an indisputable gender gap absolutely exists.

It's from this starting point that director Stacey Lee's film delves into patently sexist foundations of genre music - and how that prejudice infects every facet of the industry. This film actively, firmly asserts that EDM isn't just "club music": it's an entire, massive music machine firmly rooted in art and the artist. 'Underplayed' establishes that electronica is a way of life or an artistic expression as much as any other genre of music -- and the active suppression of women is the active suppression of an entire perspective, experience and representation of humanity.

If male privilege is the blissful ignorance of challenges women face - challenges that men simply never had to consider - then this where 'Underplayed' makes its strongest case. Even when women are given the opportunity to DJ, the documentary illustrates how femininity is weaponized against artists and industry leaders' default position is skepticism that a woman could possibly create art of such quality "by herself."

'Underplayed' absolutely shatters the misconception that female DJs don't exist, by acknowledging the women pioneers of electronic music. This documentary affirms they've always existed and still very much exist - even if women are grossly underrepresented in a multi-billion dollar industry. If a documentary is measured by its eye-opening, critical insight and artistic presentation, then 'Underplayed' stands among the very best documentaries of 2020.

Final verdict: 'Underplayed' makes a firm, clear and irrefutable argument that a greater diversity of artistic voices begets a greater diversity of art and expression. And suppressing women silences and invalidates the experiences of women.

Score: 4.5/5

'Underplayed' screens during TIFF 2020. This documentary is not yet rated and has a running time of 88 minutes.