The Greta Garbo of India was a sultry Jewish actress named Ruby Myers. Known as Sulochana, she was a silent era superstar who faded from history. Now she’s back in the spotlight in this eye-opening documentary that explains how Myers, Esther Abraham, Rose Ezra and Florence Ezekiel left their mark on Indian cinema from the 1920s through the 1960s. Because Hindu and Muslim women refused to be on camera, actors were recruited from small but less strict Jewish communities that had been in India for 2,000 years. It’s a treat to see the rare footage showing the elaborate costumes and sets, not to mention some serious swooning. India 2017 (85 minutes)

From Stephan Elliot, writer and director of “The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert,” comes this hilarious and raunchy comedy about growing up in a Sydney beachside suburb during the swinging 1970s. Guy Pearce who became a star playing a drag queen in “Priscilla” is this time cast as one of the parents, along with Aussie star Radha Mitchell (in person at the festival), attempting to raise their children in relatively privileged circumstances between wild partying and general outrageous behavior. For a couple of their teenagers their parents’ behavior is difficult to understand and makes coming of age all the more daunting. The teens are forced to deal with marital discord not to mention a beached whale. Clever nostalgic  references to the 70’s are a treat along with compelling character performances from the large cast including famous pop star and Australian TV icon Kylie Minogue and veteran actor Jack Thompson. Australia 2018 (97 minutes)

GUEST OF HONOR: RADHA MITCHELL
Australian actress Radha Mitchell will join us at the festival with two of her new films, which she will introduce and participate in a Q & A following the screenings. She stars in “Flammable Children,” as a parent trying to raise children in the wild 1970s in Sydney. In “Celeste” she gives a touching and vulnerable performance as a renowned opera diva who gives up her career for the man she loves and moves to a rainforest. Her films “Looking for Grace” and “The Waiting City” played in the Australian Spotlight section of the Mostly British festival. The critical success of “High Art,” one of her early Hollywood movies, gained her a wider audience. She has also worked in Hollywood on “Neverland” and “Melinda and Melinda.” Woody Allen hired her as the lead character Melinda without an audition on the strength of seeing one of her movies.

Introduction by Radha Mitchell followed by an explanation of Everything Australian by Mostly British board member Lachlan Welsh. Miss Mitchell will participate in a Q & A after the screening.

“Edie,” a coming of age story, skips past adolescence and adulthood and begins when title character Edie Moore is in her 80s. A dissatisfied wife and caretaker, soon to be widowed, she appears to be at loose ends. Her daughter, seeing only a frail, disgruntled old woman, wants to put her in a home.  But a postcard and a long-ago promise changes the story for Edie, played by Sheila Hancock with both great emotional range and enviable physical gifts. Fulfilling a lifelong dream, Edie runs away to the Scottish Highlands to climb Mount Suilven, the most enigmatic mountain in North West Scotland.  On the way she teams up with a brash young mountaineering guide. The scenery will make you swoon as will Hancock’s physical prowess (no stunt double was used). UK 2017 (102 minutes)

Sponsored by Bruce Lymburn

To understand The Beatles—and what made John Lennon the man he was—you have to understand Liverpool, the city that gave birth to Lennon and The Fab Four. Director Roger Appleton’s documentary is a Liverpool focused retrospective on the early life and times—and traumatic events—that went to shape Lennon’s complex personality and influence his later songs and music. It reveals—with painful candor—how Lennon was an “outsider” from birth and how it impacted his schooldays and teenage years. And how it ultimately drove him to form his first group, The Quarrymen, then led to his early embrace of rock ‘n’ roll and his meeting with fellow rock ‘n’ roll mad Paul McCartney. Friends and contemporaries give new and very telling details about…the man we’ve known for all these years. Introduced by Tony Broadbent, author of the guidebook “’From Be-Bop-a-Lula’ to ‘Beatlemania’- The Beatles Early years in Liverpool. Hamburg and London

UK  2018 93 minutes

Michael Caine invites you to come celebrate the 1960s—the Decade that Changed the World. Freedom from tradition and convention was the hallmark of a social revolution. A pop culture awakening impacted everything from art, music, and clothing, to morality and religion. This documentary is a vivid and often times very funny narrative love letter  about the UK’s postwar outpouring of working-class  creativity and Caine’s own, very personal journey through 1960s Swinging London. Loaded with rare archival film footage from the era and with voiceover interviews with Paul McCartney, Twiggy, Marianne Faithfull, David Bailey, Roger Daltrey and Mary Quant. Also heard from are Lulu, Twiggy, Joan Collins, Sandie Shaw and David Putnam, all accompanied by a truly wondrous soundtrack of the times: The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Kinks, The Who, The Animals, et al. Great fun. Not to be missed. 2018 (85 minutes) “Looking for Lennon” and “My Generation” introduced by Tony  Broadbent, author of the guidebook ‘”From Be-Bop-a-Lula’ to “Beatlemania’ – The  Beatles Early Years in Liverpool, Hamburg and London.”

Gemma Atherton (“Made in Dagenham”) brings her fierce intelligence to this story of a depressed housewife in a London suburb who is suffocating in her quiet life. The film captures the monotony of suburbia where the wife’s only rewards appear to be good behavior from her children and an encouraging word from her self-absorbed husband, chillingly played by Dominic Cooper (“Mamma Mia!). But no one in her house seems to acknowledge her plight, or to care. She tries making a bold move to reclaim her life, but not in the way one might expect. The situation is relatable and both leads are at the top of their game.

UK 2018 115 minutes