Totally Wired: a tribute to an electric dream

Totally Wired is a DVD documentary film about Schneiders Buero (or Büro), the “infamous” analogue machines store, located in Berlin.
I’m sure most of you know the place, but for those who don’t here’s how Totally Wired’s director, Niamh Guckian, describes her first experience and how the idea of making a film came out: “… first time I went there I couldn’t wait to get out. All around me were small beeping machines and a voice box saying Good Morning, Welcome to Schneiders Buero… Walls and walls of modular systems were blinking and making too much noise, and I suddenly felt very unwell. Then a very tall German man with huge hands appeared, rather like a medicine man from the Little House on the Prairie… And suddenly, I had bitten the hook, and was listening intently to Andreas Schneider’s Sermon from the Analog Mount, and thinking, who is this person, what is this place and maybe I should make a film about it…”.

Totally Wired (available on Amazon.com and on Schneiders Buero’s website) is an 80-minute tribute to a dream made of electricity, chaos and unpredictability, hard human work, alternative marketing approaches, boutique dirty toys, and of course to the city where the dream started, Berlin.

Featuring interviews with Mr.Schneider, manufacturers (Macbeth, Doepfer, Vermona, Flame, Cwejman, Flower Electronics) and special customers/friends (Ricardo Villalobos, Daniel Miller, Anthony Rother, Junior Boys and many others) Totally Wired is a well shot (classy photography!) and enjoyable document. It’s a must-see for all analogue purists out-there, as well as for any electronic music lover.
As Niamh Guckian points out, “this film is all about possibility… Having the vision to keep it going when all around you are telling you to forget it…”.

P.s: Totally Wired was shot in 2008, in the meantime Schneiders Buero’s showroom (aka SchneidersLaden) has moved from the original location that can be seen in the film (an old Soviet Bloc office building in Alexanderplatz) to a new one.
More details about the new location on the store’s website.