A sonically-driven documentary series that connects women who make some of the most sought-after guitars in history with the women who play them.
During WWII, Gibson's factory in Kalamazoo, MI, hired everyday women to work in dozens of roles from winding strings to gluing bridges to quality control. The guitars they touched and crafted, known as Banner Era guitars, have since become collectors items, prized for their unique sound and excellent construction. Gibson guitars has opened their archives to us, offering a breathtaking glimpse into an unseen history of women at their factories, beginning in the 1920s, through the Banner Era, and all the way up to present day.
Since the doors opened to them during WWII, generations of women continue to craft and build these iconic guitars. We have access to these private Gibson factories and the women working there. We will witness them in their craft, and hear the stories behind the making of these prized instruments. In conversation, we see how these craftswomen pour their own life experiences into the instruments as they make them, and how they think and dream about the people who will own and play the guitars they have shaped.
Through relationships with collectors and artists we have access to dozens of beautiful Banner Guitars, each with its own patina and personal history. When these female-made instruments are put into the hands of a group of extraordinary present-day women guitar players, they become a portal through which these artists can share their experience as working women and songwriters.
Our story places the historic WWII Banner Era guitars in the hands of the most inspiring female musicians living today, women from many different genres of music, symbolizing the thread of a guitar. Artists such as Bonnie Raitt, Dolly Parton, and Brittany Howard in community with up and coming artists that are shaping the future of a new generation of players.
We share the story of how these legendary instruments were made, and the experiences of the women that made them in a roundtable setting, invoking a new kind of conversation with female players on how they view and choose the instrument they play. Together they will play and record powerful historic songs, as well as write original music to create the I Play Different soundtrack.
Taylor McFadden is a director, writer, and producer who’s debut feature film LOVERS stars Angela Trimbur (Search Party, The Future) and Amelia Meath (GRAMMY Nominated Sylvan Esso) with original music by Nathaniel Rateliff (Palmer, SNL). Her last short film Loose Ends won the Rising Star Award at the Canada International Film Festival. She is known for directing music videos, experimental and narrative films that have been featured in FORBES, Rolling Stone, BUST magazine and Pitchfork. Westword magazine named her one of the "Five Artists to Watch out for in 2025". She lived and worked in Istanbul Turkey as the direct assistant to acclaimed filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi (Camera d’or winner at Cannes Film Festival), and studied with teachers such as Elizabeth Kemp (Actors Studio), Judith Weston (Directing Actors) and Joan Scheckel (Filmmaker Labs). Taylor is passionate about telling stories that expose the uniqueness of our human experience, and help us better understand each other and the world around us. She is currently in development for her second feature film.
Executive Producer - Patti Scialfa
Executive Producer - Nathaniel Rateliff
Music Supervisors - Secretly Canadian
