ELSTREE 1976 TENTH ANNIVERSARY DELUXE EDITION BLU-RAY

 

Ten years ago, in a galaxy not so far away, a curious documentary about the odd community of extras and bit-part players who appeared fleetingly in the first Star Wars film became an underground classic.  Despite a favourable critical response from international press such as The New York Times, The LA Times and The Village Voice, and a vocal cult following, the film remains something of a hidden gem and is currently unavailable in most of the world.

 

Elstree 1976 is a wryly humorous, melancholic look at the people literally in the background of Star Wars. It focuses on the masked and helmeted performers to explore what it means to be a tiny part of a cultural behemoth. It’s a portrait of ten very different people whose paths converged for the briefest moment in London’s Elstree Studios in the summer of 1976, unaware of the profound effect that appearing in Star Wars would have on the rest of their lives.

 

Elstree 1976 was directed by Jon Spira, who went on to write and direct the popular feature-length documentaries Hollywood Bulldogs and The Life and Deaths of Christopher Lee along with the acclaimed ITV series Reel Britannia. It’s produced by Hank Starrs (Robodoc, Being Frank, Pennywise: The Story of IT) and the analogue-electro soundtrack was composed and performed by cult indie stalwart Jamie Hyatt.