And two of the original Stormtrooper actors will be on hand to answer questions from the audience.
Some of the scenes for the feature-length documentary, Elstree 1976, were shot on the roof and in the basement of Swindon’s Wyvern Theatre. The original costumes were provided by Luke Kaye of Luke Skywalker fancy dress company, who is also an executive producer on the film.
Commonweal School will host the South West screening in their purpose built C6 auditorium on December 8 and media and film students from Commonweal sixth form will lead a question and answer session following the screening.
Film Studies teacher Cherise Osolin said: “The students are really excited! It is really important to the learning experience to have hands on work with people from the Industry.”
Canal Cat Films’ independent cinema tour, in support of the UK release, starts on November 6 at the legendary Prince Charles Cinema in London and continues across the UK throughout November and culminating with the showing in Swindon.
All dates include a post-screening director and cast Q&A including Laurie Goode (the Stormtrooper who banged his head) and Anthony Forrest (These aren’t the droids we’re looking for Stormtrooper).
The film explores how over the summer of 1976, a vast army of American and British actors and extras donned crazy costumes to populate George Lucas’s universe. Few of them understood what the film was, let alone the impact it would go on to have. Filmmaker Jon Spira has tracked down some of those who were there, to find out what it means to exist in the shadow of such a phenomenon.
Elstree 1976 is a Canal Cat Films Production, made in association with The Works, Verax Films and British Film Company. The film was made between 2012 and 2015. Post-Production was funded by a highly successful Kickstarter crowd-funding campaign.
The film premiered at London Film Festival 2015 and was released on all platforms by Transmission Films in Australia/NZ and Film Rise in the USA 2016.
The film is released in the UK on Itunes and special edition DVD by Soda Pictures on 14 November 2016.
Feature Running Time 97 Minutes.BBFC Certificate 12