Speaking in Code is a documentary about electronic music, particularly techno narrated through the lens of people who speak in codes and demand a different kind of understanding out of their speech. It is the product of an initial decision of the director, together with her husband David Day, to make a different kind of documentary that put more focus on people than music, which is manifested through a focus on DJs, and producers with their personal challenges and in their social environments whether it be with friends or be with family members.
Rather than relying on already existing footage, the director herself happens to be where the music action is: the music festivals, record label offices, and collective art spaces and clubs. The movie is shot between 2005-2009 in Canada, the US, Germany, Spain, and the Netherlands. One particular focus falls on Germany with its techno capital Berlin that provided a unique material condition due to the reunification, Cologne that hosts Kompakt Records, and Jena that cherishes the memory of East German communism with its art collective Freude am Tanzen. Besides, the movie also features shots from the Awakenings Festival in the Netherlands and the Sonar Music Festival in Spain as well as interviews with Robert Henke, aka Monolake; Tobias Thomas, a Kompakt DJ; Gernot Bronsert and Sebastian Szary aka Modeselektor; David Jay; Gabor Schablitzki and Sören Bodner from Wighnomy Brothers; Wolfgang Voigt; Philip Sherburne among others.
