UNCHARTED (Tribeca 2023) – Review by Valerie Kalfrin
In the documentary Uncharted, multiple Grammy-winning singer, songwriter, musician, and producer Alicia Keys remembers how male executives would dismiss her early in her career.
“They immediately figured I couldn’t produce, I couldn’t write,” she says. “They didn’t care about what I could offer in a professional capacity.”
She also recalls how she would “shake on my way to sessions,” knowing she’d be the only woman in the studio and wondering what the vibe would be.
Ostensibly about a nonprofit songwriting and mentoring camp Keys co-founded with other women in the recording industry, Uncharted also is a call to action for putting more women behind the music. That includes writers, producers, engineers, and executives.
Statistics from USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative shared in the film point out that in 2019, only about 22% of artists in the industry are women. Just over 12% of the credited songwriters are women, and only about 2.6% are credited producers, engineers, and mixers.
Debuting at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival, Uncharted goes inside the camp called She Is The Music and also follows three attendees. The four-day camp is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a dozen women recommended by managers, agents, and talent scouts.
Director Beth Aala (Made in Boise) starts off the film with a fun collaboration with about four women of color in a studio, tapping their feet, snapping their fingers, fiddling with a melody on a keyboard, and singing notes and lyrics. “We all playing imaginary drums in our head,” one says to laughter.
The film introduces DaVionne of Atlanta, who writes and records music in her apartment and shares it online. She wants a proper record deal, but algorithms say she doesn’t have enough followers.
Ayoni of Los Angeles is inspired by Rhianna, who also hails from Barbados like she does. Ayoni released an EP while still in college but thinks moving farther in her career is such a matter of luck. The recording industry is “highly sexualized,” she says, and “people just don’t know how to market me.”
Jean Deaux of Brooklyn raps and sings and would like to be a songwriter for other artists. Visiting her family at home in Chicago, she drops by a local library to mentor others.
All the women say how nurturing and gratifying it feels to be in the studio with all women, especially women of color. DaVionne notes that around men, she has to make herself feel smaller, “more digestible.”
Uncharted loses some momentum once the songwriting camp finishes and the film follows these women in their regular lives. While it’s certainly worthwhile to learn more about them, having some biographical touches at the beginning might have helped viewers become more invested emotionally in their stories. For instance, Jean Deaux breaks down at the songwriting camp, talking about a close friend who died, but we don’t learn more about him until much later.
That said, the film generates some suspense in what happens to the songs written during the camp. Keys and the other mentors shop them around and give the camp attendees feedback. Keys likes the tone in Ayoni’s and DaVionne’s voices and says of Jean Deaux’s rap, “That’s fire.”
Executive produced by Keys and journalist Katie Couric, among others, Uncharted is a bumpy but sincere look at women striving to break into the music business, the hustle behind-the-scenes, and one effort to give the next generation a boost.
