Iara Lee

In the documentary "Modulations," one of the many techno music artists interviewed says that 132 beats per minute is the optimum pace for an electronic dance record. If so, Iara Lee is the perfect person to make a film on the subject--that's about the pulse of her speech. Throughout the film, much is made about electronic or techno dance music being a truly global, multicultural art form that, via its use of new and readily accessible technology, allows anyone, anywhere, to be an artist.

In the documentary "Modulations," one of the many techno music artists interviewed says that 132 beats per minute is the optimum pace for an electronic dance record. If so, Iara Lee is the perfect person to make a film on the subject--that's about the pulse of her speech. Throughout the film, much is made about electronic or techno dance music being a truly global, multicultural art form that, via its use of new and readily accessible technology, allows anyone, anywhere, to be an artist.

Do you think of the techno-rave scene as cultural cotton candy: flavorful, but nutritionally empty? With "Modulations," director Iara Lee has managed to make a documentary on the phenomenon and fill it with fiber and vitamins--and put it in a very colorful wrapper. The color was the easy, and obvious, part. After all, this is a world filled with pulsating beats, strobing lights and fashions that mix "The Jetsons" with Dr. Seuss.

The key word in Iara Lee's ambitious but often tedious documentary "Synthetic Pleasures" is control: control over the environment, the mind and the body, over the life span itself. This, Lee suggests, is manifesting itself in myriad ways: virtual reality, cyber-sex, cryonics, biotechnology, artificial intelligence, the Internet, smart drugs. The list goes on and on. And that's a problem: Lee spreads herself too thin.

Eight independent filmmakers, whose works had been part of a nationwide college tour sponsored by Los Angeles-based Guess Inc., on Monday condemned the apparel company's "sweatshop labor" practices and ads "that are demeaning to women."