“Resynator” (2024) is Alison Tavel’s first feature film, a documentary about her father, Donald Louis Tavel, who died soon after she was born. She uses his brainchild, the titular object, a kind of sibling and synthesizer, as a vehicle to connect with her father by interviewing people who knew him, have experience making it or could play it. She made this film at the same age that her father invented the machine. By their fruits, shall you know them?
Several types of people will be interested in “Resynator”: technology nerds with an interest in music, people who are interested in catching a glimpse of famous musicians and people who enjoy documentaries that expose long hidden family secrets. I fall into the last category, and it is the most universally relatable entry point to the story. Tavel interviews different members of her family. The big hint of family dysfunction comes from the now deceased Grandma Kitty who plays the only discordant note in a sea of accolades about Tavel’s dad Tavel. Even his widow and Tavel’s mother, Tammy, who is so upbeat and cheerful that if she was a fictional character, woodland creatures would become tame around her and follow her around, has nothing but kind words. Even stepdad Alan Rosenberg is full of good cheer at the prospect of talking about his predecessor if it means spending more time with his little girl, a now grown young woman who usually works in the music industry for singer, songwriter and musician Grace Potter when she is not in front of the camera. Kitty is evasive and her one fully expressed memory of her son ends with, “Who wants a genius for a son?” Yikes, (checks notes) everybody.
A movie needs a messy guy, and Gordon Baird, founder of “Musician Magazine,” does Massachusetts proud after trying to be diplomatic and dancing around the issue to gauge how much Tavel has discovered until he lets the dam break and dishes about his theory about how Don died. Tavel then backtracks and investigates all the claims until Tammy reveals the truth that she did not want to let destroy her husband’s memory. If “It Ends With Us” (2024) was actually good or accurate, “Resynator” would be the nonfiction version with everyone, including Tavel, reluctant to apply what they know about abusive people to the beloved and brilliant Don, whose origin story is credible and a great explanation for his issues. Explanations implicitly seem to get conflated with an excuse for his behavior. Hopefully with the release of this film, Tammy will get exonerated in people’s minds and live in as high esteem as Don.
During this section, an unidentified off-screen interviewer who sounds like they have a masculine voice conducts the interview with Tammy. It felt like a missed opportunity that they only read from a letter from Don that explains his concern that he was displacing his anger on to his wife and children, but also from the “nasty notes” that he left for Tammy around the house, which may not have been preserved though Tavel does not push the point. Like “The Monkey” (2025), which embraces examining the childhood trauma’s differing effect on two twin brothers who diverge as adults, the documentary paralells Don with his estranged twin, RJ, who volunteers as another imagined version of Don if he had lived. Emmett Chapman, inventor of Chapman Stick (what), is the closest that the film gets to an armchair psychologist in his accurate assessment of his friend.
Tavel says to her less than enthusiastic uncle Larry (one brother never appears in “Resynator”) that she is here for the real story, but the film does not reflect that as she spends most of the film, especially the last act, on a more upbeat note fulfilling her father’s dream of getting the Reysnator up and running and back on the road. This assessment is not a criticism. If you are an adult and find out that your idealized dad is not only imperfect, but endangered you in utero and hurt your mom, you may stick with the machine. Also documentaries do not make a lot of money so if you have a CVS receipt length list of famous people willing to be in your documentary, include them. I was not into it except when the film played the music that the musician created with the reysnator, specifically two of six members from the Columbian group Systema Solar, otherwise I could take it or leave it regardless of how much I enjoy the artist’s work: Mark Ronson, Gotye, Kendra Frost, Tara Busch, Gavin Russom, Money Mark, Jon Anderson, Kenny Aronoff, Jimmy Jam, Ethan Johns, Will Gregory, Adrian Utley, Fred Armisen, Mike Gordon, Onnie McIntyre, Butch Vig, Stewart Cole, Solomon Dorsey, Rami Jaffee and Peter “Sledgehammer” Gabriel. If they are not playing music, it amounts to talking heads brought in to lure their fans into watching a documentary. It is a cynical assessment, but valid. It will retroactively make you more impressed with television series and movies that make fictional jam sessions seem riveting.
In contrast, the opening experts are not common household names but are more germane to Tavel’s homage to her father since they knew him. Synth historian Brian Kehew offers the key explanation that Tavel uses to convey how the Reysnator is revolutionary and different from other synthesizers, but it could require a couple of times rewinding to listen before you understand it. Christian Castiano, a Grammy award winning producer who gets teary eyed over Tavel’s goals, likens it to a wild animal compared to its more domesticated familiar counterparts. Most synthesizers come with a keyboard to play music, but the resynator is just a box and one could plug in an analog device like a musical instrument or a voice and transform it into digital notes. The recreation of past events through illustrations worked as archived audio of Don’s voice plays, and the bevy of home videos and montage of family photographs gives a balanced view of Don as a person and an inventor. Mike Beigel of the Beigel Sound Lab and Mu-Tron III (what?) founder gets her started and is probably the most knowledgeable person other than Don who knows how it works. He spends more time staring at the camera when interviewed and is more comfortable dealing with the tech. Richard Lingenberg, a repair technician/engineer, does not get much screentime, but after Beigel, he seems to be the most comfortable with the one of its kind machine. Expertise does not necessarily make for great interview subjects.
Don said, “Computers won’t replace us.” The human side of the story is more interesting than the machine unless you are a music tech nerd, but even as Tavel winds down the invention’s tale, it shows another side of Don who gets knocked down and has trouble getting back up when the resynator does not get a hoped-for big break. Tavel finds another bombshell then reminds the audience of the psychological cause for his waning resistance instead of letting the failure sit with her dad. Surprisingly the resynator’s history tells as much about Don as his life story: he could not handle setbacks whether they were normal, cruel or self-inflicted. Stay for the closing credits song where Tavel pulls a Natalie Cole and sings with her dad on a song that he modified for her. Tavel finds ways to preserve her dad’s memory by putting his best on a pedestal and letting the failures fade with time, eclipsed with additional stories.
Is “Resynator” a commercial, and Tavel is trying to gain some momentum to market her dad’s synthesizer? Only time will tell. A lot of documentaries could learn from Tavel’s ability to identify each person on screen and the location, which is why it is a little frustrating that Tavel never reveals the identity of the other interviewer who remains off camera. It feels like another missing piece of the puzzle—a future mystery for someone else to solve and the seed to a possible sequel. “You don’t have to be famous to be special,” but being famous sure helps flesh out the movie and get people interested in an obscure talent’s human story and his daughter’s reckoning with her family history while using work to cope with revelations.
