The early 80s of West Berlin was accessible to David Bowie and Nick Cave, however it remained a secluded scene unto itself, a fallen city shared between the French, the Brits, and the Americans. Much of the architecture was unchanged from the war, and a post-war generation of musicians and artists were able to live cheap, work little, squat housing, and stay out all night. Muscha’s DECODER is a Spectacle favorite making a return appearance. This is a must-see on a bigger screen with a bigger sound.

DECODER is a quiet bureaucratic surveillance drama, but then it’s a color-soaked, Benjamin-tinged struggle over information and control. It stars Bill Rice (who you know from Andrew Horn’s DOOMED LOVE), a man impeccably sensitive and equally expressive under vibrant colored lights. There are fast food joints, great tunes, Genesis P-Orridge, Christiane F, and the true answer to whether music recorded from frogs in distress can incite revolution.

“Information is like a bank – some of us are rich, and some of us are poor. ALL OF US CAN BE RICH.”

Special thanks to Vinegar Syndrome and the American Genre Film Archive.

Playing with:

MUZAK
Dir. Rhody Streeter and Tony Ganz, 1972.
United States. 6 min.
In English.

World premiere of new 16mm restoration print.

But just how far-fetched were DECODER’s systems of authoritarian aural control? In the early 1970s, documenteurs of all things uniquely, perversely Americana Rhody Streeter and Tony Ganz ventured into the bowels of a high-tech new industry: MUZAK. Military scientists, organ players for the New York Mets, and record executives collide as they promise the viewer a future of happy labor delivered via audio transmission. Both wry and slightly unnerving, Streeter and Ganz’s documentary uncannily predicts Spotify’s nefarious algorithms and a present where art is not meant to be enjoyed but quantified into how it benefits American capitalism.

The films of Tony Ganz and Rhody Streeter distributed by the Film Desk.

Special thanks to the New York Public Library, Elena Rossi-Snook, Jake Perlin and The Film Desk, and Rhody Streeter and Tony Ganz. 16mm restoration completed by BB Optics in 2025.