Even More Documentaries for Producers and DJs

In what’s starting to become a reoccurring Friday column here at DJ Techtools, we’re highlighting seven more fantastic documentaries and videos we’ve found around the web. Each of the included films features producers or DJs in a unique and insightful context – so pop some popcorn and enjoy your Friday with these flicks!

Feature Length / Longer: These first few are on the longer side -set aside 15 minutes to an hour for these!

A YEAR WITH ARMIN VAN BUUREN

Armin Van Buuren, who recently retook his crowning first place slot in the DJ Mag Top 100 Poll, is one of a handful of international superstar DJs who lead a life that’s almost unfathomable to the rest of us outside of that world. In this feature, we get an even better look into the personality and life of Armin – even if you’re not a trance fan, you’ll find this a good watch. Also, if you like this, you’ll probably really enjoy our interview with Armin from earlier this year.

RE:GENERATION MUSIC PROJECT

We’ve seen a lot of the individual sections of this Grammy-associated documentary being spread around over the last 6 months, featuring production collaborations between electronic musicians and more traditional music stylings- this project actually spawned the Skrillex/Doors track “Breaking a Sweat”. It’s very much worth checking out in its full form as a complete film, even if you’ve watched one or two of the individual segments already!

REAL SCENES: DETROIT

Resident Advisor put this documentary out last year, but it was just recently featured on a list over on Beatport News, and after watching it we decided we loved how well this documentary covers the scene surrounding the birthplace of techno music, Detroit. Highly recommended.

Last time we did a documentary wrap up, we included a well-known project “Secondhand Sureshots” that had producers go shopping for vinyl in secondhand stores to sample and make new tracks with. This documentary is pretty much the identical concept, only with Japanese producers. It’s super-interesting to watch this project unfold, and the resulting tracks aren’t bad either!

Shorter Documentaries – you should be able to slip these in while your boss isn’t looking:

GIRL TALK, NICOLAS JAAR AND DJ SLUGGO

While Pitchfork tends to focus more on hip-hop, electronica, and indie rock than dance music and DJs, they’ve started making some really great short films that touch on artists of all types. In this episode of their weekly series, they start out interviewing sample jockey Greg Gillis (Girl Talk) and the second half features the legendary Nicolas Jaar interviewing ghetto house pioneer DJ Sluggo about DJing and music. Great stuff.

MAX VANGELI MICRO DOCUMENTARY

Max Vangeli has been a rising star in the dance music scene for the past two years – with major successes touring and producing alongside Steve Angello and AN21. In this short, we get a chance to hear his perspective on being a rising star and earning credibility and respect as both a DJ and producer.

NOSAJ THING GOES RECORD SHOPPING

This one’s another quickie from our friends over at Pitchfork (they do some great video work over there!). Nosaj Thing is a favorite producer around the DJTT Headquarters, and in this short you get a chance to watch him go shopping for records and talk about his finds. Short and simple, but clever.

Looking for more? If you’ve missed either of our past collections of free DJ films and documentaries to watch online, you can check them out with the below links:

Watch More DJ/Producer Documentaries Now:
Round One | Round Two | Round Three | Round Four | Round Five | Round Six