DO YOU KNOW YOUR ELSTREE 1976 UNSUNG HEROES?

In 1976, during the hottest summer on record, Star Wars was shot in suburban North London. Nobody involved had any idea how big the film would become, many couldn’t even remember the title.

Yet, for the extras and actors in smaller roles, their faces hidden in masks and helmets, this seemingly insignificant job would go on to colour their lives even four decades later.

ELSTREE 1976 is a portrait of a cross-section of these people; from the man inside the most iconic villain in film history to the guy whose character was completely cut from the final film. It tells the stories of their lives and explores the eccentric community they have formed, traveling the world, signing autographs for fans.

The next time you sit down to watch the original Star Wars, try this little experiment. Instead of focusing on the original stars; Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford and the rest of the film’s marquee stars, shift your attention to the bit-part, peripheral players. You know who we mean, the Jawas and Tusken Raiders, Stormtroopers and X-wing fighters and other, weird and wonderful alien creations that adorned the galaxy far, far away.

WHAT’S THEIR STORY BEHIND THE GREATEST FILM TO COME FROM THE 1970s?

Elstree 1976 director, Jon Spira set out to put a face to some of those part-players. From the ill-fated Greedo (played by Paul Blake) to the Stormtrooper (played by Anthony Forrest) who was persuaded that these weren’t, in fact, the droids they were looking for. Spira turns the spotlight on the supporting players and extras of the Star Wars universe, and explores the unexpected, and sometimes awkward, ways in which their brief involvement in George Lucas’ space opera has altered their lives.

James Earl Jones might have provided the voice, but it was David Prowse behind the Darth Vader mask in Star Wars: A New Hope.

At the best know-end of faces, there are the actors David Prowse, who physically embodied Darth Vader but whose voice was dubbed by James Earl Jones. And Jeremy Bulloch, who played the Bounty Hunter Boba Fett in both The Empire Strikes Back and The Return of the Jedi. At the other, virtually anonymous end, we have Laurie Goode, know to fans as that one Stormtrooper who bumps his head walking through that door, and Derek lyons, who is seen for fleeting moment standing beside Princess Leia as she hangs a medal around Han Solo’s neck in the final scene of Star Wars.

Spira was drawn into the world of Star Wars by happenstance a few years ago when a student in a screenwriting class he was teaching named John Chapman mentioned by chance that he had been a nameless X-wing pilot in Star Wars. Though his role had been utterly minuscule and he had never acted in anything of note afterward, Chapman told Spira he had nevertheless attended numerous Star Wars conventions over the years, signing autographs for die-hard fans, something about which he felt a great deal of ambivalence.

As revealed in Elstree 1976 (named for the production studio outside London where much of Star Wars was filmed), even among the less well-known figures in the films, there are subtle hierarchies at play. Extras and supporting players of varying degrees of recognizability in the universe jockey with one another for fans’ attention — and cash — on the convention circuit. For an actor like Angus MacInnes, who played the X-wing fighter known as Gold Leader, finding himself spurned by autograph-seekers in favor of an actor like Bulloch, whose face was never shown on screen, can sting.

Greedo the Bounty Hunter (Paul Blake) confronts Han Solo (Harrison Ford) in ‘Star Wars.’

The documentary is both sweet and bittersweet, might sound as if it’s only for “Star Wars” geeks. But in telling a small story of bit players, the director, Jon Spira, captures a more universal picture of the droplets of fame created by a pop-culture tidal wave.

The fans will, of course, love this film, but it’s also a thought-provoking exploration of the dawning of our current age, in which level of fame doesn’t necessarily match up with level of genuine accomplishment, and individuals can find themselves transformed by fast-moving fads and phenomena beyond their control.

All those interviewed for the film express their love and respect for the Star Wars franchise that has had such an enduring impact on their lives

JON SPIRA – DIRECTOR  

I’m a documentary film-maker based in London. I work for the BFI, making documentaries about film and film culture and interviewing industry folk from the big Hollywood stars to retired British film crew members. I went to film school in Edinburgh, worked as a screenwriter, music video director, corporate video producer and have played pretty much every role on a film set at some point. I’ve owned my own chain of two indie video rental stores, I blog for the Huffington Post, the BFI and my own blog. My last documentary Anyone Can Play Guitar was named one of the top 10 music films of the year by the NME. And in my spare time… I like to make films.

Spira funded the film through Kickstarter and never approached Lucasfilm at any point for its input. “This isn’t a film about Star Wars,” he says. “It’s a film about these people — and Lucasfilm doesn’t own these people.”