When Helen Reddy died at the age of 78 in September last year, she was remembered as a hugely influential if somewhat forgotten figure in the 1970s music world, which had birthed a slew of significant female songwriters.
Reddy broke onto the US charts in the early '70s with her hit I am Woman, a song that became an anthem for the feminist movement, the members of which fought for the passing of the Equal Rights Amendment Act in the US during that decade. This fight has not yet fully been won but in the '70s, it seemed to be on the verge of giving much-needed legal recognition to the struggle for gender equality.
Reddy was Australian, the daughter of showbiz parents. By the time she won a singing contest in 1966, she had already had a miserable first marriage to an alcoholic and had a young child to support. She was over 30 and had been rejected by almost 30 record companies before she found success with I am Woman in 1972.
She spent much of the next decade - with the support of her fast-talking, cocaine-addled second husband and manager Jeff Wald - establishing herself as a popular and sought-after entertainer before she decided to quit the music business and Wald in the early '80s.
Her story mirrored so many other women's struggles for acceptance and recognition and provided the well from which to draw the simple but effective lyrics for the anthem for which she will always be remembered, and which continues to have resonance for generations of women around the world.
Australian director Unjoo Moon recalls growing up in the 1970s: "I used to watch the women in my life, my mother and her friends ... as soon as one of Helen's songs came on the radio, these women, who were mostly housewives and mothers in those days, would wind down the window, let their hair loose in the breeze and sing really loudly. I always equated her music with making women feel stronger and bolder."
So when Moon attended an awards ceremony in Los Angeles in 2013 and noticed that the woman sitting next to her husband was Helen Reddy, she made him swap places with her and began to talk to the singer.
Moon says that at the time, she didn't know the breadth, depth and scope of what had happened in Reddy's career. "By the time dessert came around I was amazed by her story and went home pretty convinced that it must be a movie.
"I started googling her and started watching those incredible movies of her on YouTube ... and I started to realise that not even a documentary had been made about her. I think I was very blessed in some ways to be chosen to make this film about her."
The film, I am Woman, stars Australian actress Tilda Cobham-Hervey. It premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in 2019 and Moon says she's grateful that "Helen not only got to see the film after it was made, which she loved and was very moved by, but I'm also pleased that Helen got to see the incredible audience response to the movie. Even though she wasn't able to attend a lot of the screenings with us she got to hear about them."
Cobham-Hervey says playing the role of Reddy was incredibly daunting. "The more I learnt about Helen the more daunting it became. I really fell in love with her during the making of the film and the bar just kept getting higher and higher. I know the impact she had on so many people's lives . I think it's important to look back at the women who came before us and celebrate them and make sure they're remembered by history."
Moon, who began the work on the script before the #MeToo movement began and before the Trump-era women's marches in the US, says she hopes that when people watch the film they're not only entertained by the story but by other elements too because it's such a fascinating period of history and the music is great.
Cobham-Hervey says she hopes that the film will offer something to audiences who are living through a really odd time in the world right now.
"I hope it brings hope and inspiration to people and makes people think about what they really want to do with their lives and take the risk to follow their dreams. Helen worked so hard to get where she did but I think it really paid off and there's something powerful about that."
• 'I am Woman' is available on DStv Box Office.
